


The Web Of Spider-Man

by Mastermind980



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:49:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 57
Words: 348,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23294278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mastermind980/pseuds/Mastermind980
Summary: Behold the rise of Spider-Man. A adaption of the Web Of The Spider-Man Quest on Spacebattles by Gorilla-Fingers.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	1. Origins

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Web Of The Spider-Man](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/571312) by Gorilla-Fingers. 



You were running as fast as you could. Almost as soon as you got off the bus you were sprinting for your front door. The cold autumn air whipped through your hair and sent your lungs burning. Burning…  
  
Crap, no, that wasn’t the air, it was the asthma.  
  
Take a breath.  
  
Calm down…  
  
Keep running!  
  
Soon enough you burst through the front door of the only home you’ve ever known; a quaint little two-story home in Queens.  
  
“Has it started yet?! Is it on?” You call out, wheezing through every word as a combination of your lack of athleticism and your asthma makes your lungs burn. Your Aunt, May Parker, ducks her head through the kitchen, the smell of dinner on the boil as you quickly, almost stumbling over your feet as you do so, kick off your shoes and dump your backpack.  
  
“Goodness, Peter.” You just quickly stumbled through the front hallway as you entered the living room where your Uncle, Benjamin Parker, lowered the newspaper he was reading to look at you, amusement clear on his face.  
  
“Woah Pete, where’s the fire.” You quickly glance over at the tv and-  
  
“You don’t even have it on yet? Uncle Ben!” You quickly cry out as you run for the television, switching it on before messing around with the front buttons on the cable box.  
  
“Peter, you look like you’re about to have an attack there son. What’s wrong?” Uncle Ben put his newspaper aside as he watched you quickly snapping your head back to look at him before you quickly adjust your glasses.  
  
“Uncle Ben, Mr. Stark’s supposed to give an interview, like, right now! How could you not have the news on for this?” Uncle Ben, for his part, looked slightly amused at that as he reached back over for his newspaper, satisfied that there was no fire to put out for the moment.  
  
“Eh Pete, it’s not like we have much in the way of stock in ol’ Stark Industries and, well, just got back from work. Figured I’d just relax for a little bit.” You groan a bit at your Uncle’s easygoing attitude as you stood up to look for the remote.  
  
“Uncle Ben, this is serious! Some crazy stuff was going on at Stark Industries last night and this press conference is supposed to clear it up! If they start some kind of investigation they might cancel tomorrow’s field trip and I won’t be able to go!”  
  
As easy going as your uncle could be, and as much as he didn’t quite understand all the scientific stuff you’d often talk about, there’s one thing you could always depend on him for. When you thought something was important, or if it had to do with something involving your school-  
  
“... Well that does sound serious Peter. May, where’d you put the remote?”  
  
-he’d always drop everything to help you out in the moment. Ben Parker got out of his comfortable recliner to help you start looking, his newspaper thrown off to the side as May ducked her head back out of her kitchen.  
  
“I think I left it in one of the side pouches in my recliner!” She called out, you immediately dive for your Aunt’s favorite recliner and start digging through the side pouches. Sure enough you’re met with the hard plastic of the remote, a small cheer forcing itself from your lips as you turned around to change the channel. Ben quickly sat back down in his chair while you took a seat in front of the tv. Soon as the channel changed-  
  
“Oh thank goodness it hasn’t started yet.” You breathed a sigh of relief, finally letting yourself calm down. Right now Mr. Stark wasn’t at the podium giving his statement, rather it seemed an officer in the military was giving a preliminary statement about what exactly had gone down. From what you were skimming it didn’t seem so bad, though there were still aspects of it that seemed off, but it wouldn’t really matter until Mr. Stark came out to give his statement. Uncle Ben scratched at the back of his head as he watched the news ticker flash by, a slight frown on his face as he listened in.  
  
“Yeah, good thing. Wonder what kind of trouble that young man’s gotten himself cooked up in. Stark’s only just gotten back from his… er-” You watch your Uncle fish for the right word under the circumstances, “‘stay’ in Afghanistan, after all.”  
  
You shrug, though you did hear rumors at school about stuff involving that weird robot that’s been making the rounds in the Middle-East, the Iron Man some news sites were referring to it as. People were speculating that it was some kind of Stark Industries weapons project… which would only be slightly awkward given that as soon as Mr. Stark had gotten back from the Middle-East he’d shut down his company’s weapons division.  
  
“Oh, he’s come out!” Well you supposed you’d see soon enough. The military personnel who’d been headlining the event thus far took a step to the side to allow Mr. Stark to go up on the podium. Well, this was it, moment of truth. You hold your breath-  
  
 _“Uh… Been a while since I’ve been in front of you. Figure I’ll stick to the cards this time.”_  
  
-and then you release it in a relieved sigh. Starting off light. Sure it wasn’t a sign that this was going to go swimmingly; the prototype robotic suit worn by a bodyguard thing seemed a bit troubling given Mr. Stark’s prior statements, but just so long as there wasn’t any hiccups, your field trip would probably still be-  
  
 _“I’m sorry Mr. Stark but do you honestly expect us to believe that was a bodyguard in a suit? That conveniently appeared despite the fact that-”  
  
“I know it’s confusing. It is one thing to question the official story and another to make wild accusations or insinuate that I’m, uh, a superhero.”  
  
“I never said you were a superhero.”  
  
“You didn’t…”_  
  
… Okay you were feeling some kind of pit in your stomach right now.  
  
“... He’s ah, getting a bit worked over.”  
  
Apparently so did Uncle Ben. Hard not to see it with how tripped up he was getting over this one point. The press conference hadn’t been going on for even a minute before he seemed off track! Jeez, your field trip seemed pretty much doomed at this point…  
  
Come on. Please. ‘Please’. Parker luck don’t fail you now.  
  
 _“The truth is…”_  
  
Come on…  
  
 _“... I am Iron Man.”_  
  
… Oh.  
  
Immediately the press conference blew up, reporters jumping out of their seats, cameras flashing as everyone suddenly started shouting at once, asking questions or trying to get some other information out of Mr. Stark who just stood up at the podium looking out at them all. Soon enough the news coverage was over as the broadcast cut back to the studio, the anchors having a pair of dumbfounded expressions on their faces…  
  
Dumbfounded expressions that you saw on Uncle Ben’s face, the older man just blinking in surprise as he watched the screen, Aunt May’s face, who had ducked her head out of the kitchen to watch the broadcast while it was going on and who know seemed utterly flabbergasted…  
  
And, if you were being honest, one that was probably also on your face as your dreams of going to go take a tour of Stark Industries seemed to just blow up right in your face…  
  
“Well… uh, don’t know what to tell you there Pete… but I think your field trip might be canceled.”  
  
You just groan as you slap your forehead… that sounds about right…  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**

  
And was proven right when you logged onto your school email to check for any updates.  
  
 _“Attention Students,  
  
Due to the recent controversies swarming around Stark Industries in light of this afternoon’s press conference and dangerous activities taking place at the New York Headquarters, Midtown High’s Scheduled Field Trip to Stark Industries’ Headquarters will be canceled. We apologize for those who made any plans with family to arrange for transport to the location. However, thankfully, the other choices for field trips are still open for students to pick! Any student who had chosen to take the trip to Stark Industries HQ may feel free to pick between-”_  
  
Two options that hadn’t entirely appealed to you on first glance. At least, not compared to going to ‘the’ Stark Industries. You sighed as you reach your hands under your glasses to rub your eyes. This was a big moment; you’d been looking forward to it ever since the semester started! Sure it was all under the hanging cloud of the recent Stark Industries tragedies, well, ‘tragedies’ you didn’t really consider the weapons division shutting down to be one, but you were still so excited to see this place! This was where the magic happened as far as advances in engineering, power and robotics!  
  
…  
  
No helping it, you supposed.  
  
…  
  
It still really, really, ‘really’ sucked though.  
  
So you considered the other two options. Both of them hadn’t caught your eye quite like Stark Industries at first so it was time to really sit down and think of where you wanted to go now that the option was out of your hands…

...  
  
God this choice was a lot harder than you gave it credit for.  
  
You shoved your phone back into your pocket as you reached under your glasses and rubbed your eyes, standing up to walk around your room and pace. It shouldn't have been too hard, right? After all, you were a science geek through and through... though, maybe you shouldn't be thinking of yourself as 'a geek' in your head but, well, you kind of blame Flash for that one. Point was science was your bread and butter, it was the thing that you were interested in, the thing you really wanted to pursue in your life... or at least, it was the thing you wanted to pursue that you were also good at. A dry chuckle escapes your lips at that as you look over at the photos hanging on the wall.  
  
It was a natural fit too. Your parents were scientists and pretty good ones too! According to Aunt May and Uncle Ben they bounced around a few of the bigger labs in New York working here and there before they eventually settled on one job and really started to climb the corporate ladder in it. The way Ben talked about your dad, how proud he was of the way he carried himself and how he wanted to use his scientific acumen to help people... it really did speak to you on some level. Ben and May they always spoke like it was a natural step going forward for you too; how smart you were, how naturally science came to you. Sure, you were no Stark, Strange or Richards but you were a pretty clever kid. You were even good at fidgeting and fixing up stuff in your uncle's basement or garage!  
  
It was that interest in engineering and invention that had made you want to go to Stark Industries in the first place! Tony Stark was... well, kind of your hero! He was super smart but also successful and funny and people liked him and _girls_ liked him! At the same time he made amazing advancements in the fields of science and technology that helped people! Sure before there was the whole weapons division at Stark Industries that muddied things up but, well, he was still helping people with his advancements and the technology his company produced. When he closed down the weapons division a couple weeks back it made the entire thing even simpler!  
  
The fact that Tony Stark _was now a literal super hero?_ That just made it ten times better! He was like that old WWII Hero, Captain America, but just... science-ier!  
  
So it should've been such a snap decision. Of course if you couldn't go to Stark Industries you should want to go to Oscorp... why wouldn't you?  
  
...  
  
"... Oscorp..." You mutter to yourself as you, again, rub your eyes underneath your glasses.  
  
It was unfair. You knew it was horribly and hilariously unfair to Oscorp. Your parents ended up working full-time there once they finally settled in roots, stopped jumping from lab to lab working whatever job they could get. By all accounts from Ben and May Oscorp treated them fairly, treated them well. Good pay and they were working on not only new technology but also new feats in bio-engineering and medicine. It wasn't fair to Oscorp to hold a grudge, it wasn't fair to relate such bad memories to them...  
  
...  
  
But... it was what it was. Your parents... they died in a lab accident at Oscorp. Their bodies had to be carted out of that building. The building you'd have to go to if you went on this field trip. It just... it just left such a pit in your stomach. You were young when your mom and dad died so sure you didn't remember them but... God, they were your parents, right? Plus the way Uncle Ben and Aunt May talked about them. The love and adoration that they had for your mom and dad just wafted off of them. Ben was so proud of your dad, so proud of his little brother and how smart he was, how much of a good man he considered him. Uncle Ben might've joked about serving tours and doing his duty but, well, he always said that your dad was the man doing more good work for more people by putting his brains to good use...  
  
Given how much you loved Uncle Ben and Aunt May, how much you thought of them, how could their love for your parents not have washed off on you...  
  
How could you ignore how much it was clear that they were pained by their deaths...  
  
It wasn't fair.  
  
It wasn't reasonable.  
  
Heck, it's not like Norman Osborn himself personally reached down and strangled your parents to death...  
  
But it was what it was. Oscorp... just wasn't a place you were excited to go to...  
  
...  
  
But man, a trip to the Museum of Natural History just didn't appeal to you at all. Oh yeah, out of the choice between two of the most important centers of science and technology in New England, you wanted to go see a bunch of dusty old artifacts and exhibits at the Museum.  
  
It wasn't that you disliked the ideas of Museums but it was clear which of these trips played more to your innate interests...  
  
But then again, you really didn't want to go to Oscorp...  
  
But on the other hand, the Museum sounded boring...  
  
But on the other other hand...  
  
Agh!  
  
YOU ONLY HAD TWO HANDS!  
  
You know what, screw it, you were never going to make this decision on your own. You popped open your desk drawer and pulled out a quarter from the remaining pile of your allowance and rubbed it a bit. You were just going to keep going in circles about this and you were going to go absolutely nowhere at this rate. Time to just bite the bullet and flip the coin.  
  
...  
  
 ***Flip*  
  
*Catch*  
**  
...  
  
"Pffffft..." You quickly trill as you blow air through your lips and toss the coin, pulling your phone back out of your pocket to type in a response to the email. Oscorp it was then, you supposed...  
  
'Well hey Pete, don't be so down. I mean, sure, it's where your parents got in a gruesome lab accident that apparently led to some kind of closed-casket funeral but hey, people say that confronting bad memories is how you deal with them, right?'  
  
That sarcastic, quipping voice that you never dared use in public rang in your head as you groaned. Yeah, this was just going to be great. Turn your field trip into an exercise in trauma therapy.  
  
Fun.  
  
Agh, this was gonna be so weird. You turned your phone off as you paced back to your dresser drawer, picking up a framed photo on it. You frowned as you looked at it; your mom and dad, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, all gathered up for some kind of group photo. It was from before you were born and it was really the only picture of all four of them together you had...  
  
Well...  
  
Okay Pete.  
  
Look on the bright side.  
  
Yeah you were going to Oscorp but, hey. Oscorp was considered a close competitor to Stark Industries for a reason...  
  
And come on. It's not like 'all' the thoughts and feelings you had for your parents revolved around this, right? I mean, just look at some of the stuff they left behind for you!

Honestly, even if you hadn't been born with the smarts for science, you sure as heck would've had the tools to acquire them. Your mom and dad might not have left behind the biggest and most fancy gear, they might not have had the most illustrious connections and they might not have been rich themselves but from what they left behind, what they left for you? Their love of science and technology was abundantly clear, as well as their desire to leave that love of all things science to you in your inheritance. By this point you'd all but taken over the basement of your Aunt and Uncle's house and turned it into your own mini science lab. Your dad's notebooks were scattered about a few bookshelves that you and your uncle... okay, mostly your uncle, had managed to get down there, arranged in order of subjects he wrote about and the dates he'd written about them. It was a wealth of knowledge that even often surpassed your own textbooks, giving you a deep dive into the subjects of science that even a school as prestigious and well funded as Midtown High couldn't.  
  
Then there was your mom's chem set. It was surprisingly simple but then given that she and dad had probably gone from lab to lab and mostly worked with their gear rather than from home, it wasn't that much of a surprise to your young mind. Even if it was simple the sort of shenanigans you'd managed to get up to with it were pretty fun and great and helped spur your own interest in chemistry! It lead you to imagine your mom, busy at work most nights, working with simple chemicals and mixtures just meant to help with life for her and your dad. It warmed your heart to know that it was your mothers and that such a direct possession was now in your hand...  
  
Speaking of direct possessions... well, your dad's notes were definitely what you considered the most valuable of the things he handed down to you. Because the other thing he handed down was his laptop. Now, you were sure that back when this baby was first released that it was the swansong of computer tech, advanced and new and just the cat's pajamas as far as laptop technology. Heck you wouldn't have even put it past your dad to fiddle with it to make it better if Uncle Ben's stories were any indication... but there was no denying that, by the time dad died, this tech was old, old, 'old' at best...  
  
And that now, over a decade later, it was positively ancient. You were pretty much holding the thing together with glue, gum, paperclips and toothpicks. Granted with the right upgrades it still ran well, a common thing you saved up various allowances to spend on and what you could hope for on a good birthday or Christmas, but it was clear that at this point it was basically a whole new computer. Except for the screen and the casing you're pretty sure that you've replaced darn near every other part in the thing and upgraded it. It was still woefully inept compared to modern computers but... well, that was your lot in life for now. You were sure that Aunt May and Uncle Ben would probably love to get you something top of the line and new... but, well, they'd have to save up for it and usually things came up. Things that were more important to spend money on.  
  
Hey, when you got old enough that you could actually get a job that wasn't grunt work that you were terrible at then you'd totally start saving up yourself. The only reason you weren't out constantly mowing lawns or cleaning gutters was... yeah, the physical part.  
  
Asthma made holding down normal neighborhood teen jobs a bit of a non-starter.  
  
Still, even if the laptop was more junk now than machine, it did help you with running calculations, making and keeping your own notes and even occasionally drawing up some ideas for stuff you could fiddle on with Uncle Ben's tools. You know, provided he wasn't using them for something. You know, for a moment you considered popping on down to the basement to check some things out and do a little bit of work but, well, between worrying about the whole Stark thing and anxiously waiting for the email, plus school, you kind of had a full day. Besides, it was probably best you got your rest for tomorrow. God only knew that your trip for Oscorp was going to be a bit emotionally trying if nothing else. Some extra sleep might just be good for you...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


...  
  
......  
  
........  
  
"Yo Parker, wake up! Else everyone's gonna just leave you on the bus!"  
  
You snapped awake, forehead a little red from having been pressed against a bus seat as you yawned a bit. Reaching under your glasses you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes to glance at who woke you up, and-  
  
"Hah, stay up a little late there Parker? Maybe doing a little 'late night browsing' on your phone?" A young man, rather finely fit and, well, definitely handsome delivered a parting joke as he quickly made his way off the bus with the rest of his friends, a bit of obnoxious laughter as he ran off.  
  
Ugh... Flash. An old childhood acquaintance you'd known for a while, a strong athlete and one of Midtown High's most popular kids. Guy liked to dunk on you when he could but, well, that wasn't uncommon among the upper strata of Midtown high. Still, one good thing you could say though; unlike a lot of those old-timey teen films you watched, you didn't get shoved into lockers or bullied. That kind of stuff wasn't really part of the Midtown experience.  
  
...  
  
The ribbing was still 'really' annoying though. What made it worse this time was that he wasn't all wrong.  
  
Y-You mean, of course he was wrong about what he was insinuating you were looking up, you'd never, well, you mean not never, like Uncle Ben said you were a growing young man and your body...  
  
AAAAAH! You know what, forget it. Point was you stayed up late browsing your phone and just watching videos because, no matter what you tried, you just couldn't get to sleep. Thoughts about this field trip just kind of messed with you and you thought if you just stayed up and watched some vids you'd fall asleep eventually... which was true.  
  
Eventually.  
  
You groaned and got up off the bus in order to get off it; no point in sitting around, right? As you made your way down the middle of the bus you couldn't help but glance up to the building next to you... there it was, the thing you'd been bemoaning last night and what gave him that nervous pit in your gut.  
  
[Oscorp Tower](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/0/09/Oscorp_Industries_%28Earth-TRN633%29_from_Marvel%27s_Spider-Man_Origin_Season_1_1_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170816051023). You had to hand it to them, the people who made this building knew how to... make a building?  
  
... Wow that was bad. Though you did have to give yourself a break; you were tired.  
  
You still preferred the look of Stark Industries headquarters of course but, man, if Norman Osborn didn't know how to make a statement. The only problem that statement was looking you in the face today and going 'Well howdy there Peter Parker! Are you ready for some fun times dealing with years of repressed emotional trauma?!'  
  
Which... you know. Not great.  
  
Ugh. Maybe joining up with someone you knew would help make this all easier to swallow. Strength in numbers right? Bound to work for emotional strength too. I mean, all those power of friendship speeches that the cartoons you grew up on couldn't be yammering on for nothing, right? Upon exiting the bus you immediately, and you mean immediately, start looking around for anyone you could group up with. The sooner the better, in your opinion.

The moment you were off the bus, the moment your eyes set themselves on the crowd, you knew exactly who you wanted to spot. He'd messaged you last night after the email got sent out; how he was going to switch up his own field trip to Oscorp after Stark Industries was canceled. Now you just had to find him. Well you knew it couldn't be that hard; after all, if there was anyone that was easy to spot in a crowd it was good old-  
  
"Ned!" You quickly called up upon spotting him, grinning nice and slowly, so as not to upset your asthma, made your way over to him. Upon hearing you the rather [heavy set teen of Korean-descent](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultimate-comics-spiderman/images/6/61/Ganke.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20130725081326) turned and, with a grin, waved, quickly jogging his way over to you to meet you halfway. Ned... well there was no way around saying it; Ned was your best friend. There was also no way around saying that a big part of what had initially brought you two together was that you were both massive, massive nerds who didn't quite fit in with the popular crowd. In Ned's words, it wasn't easy being his size and nerdy and, well, you had your own intellect and let's face it less than stellar health holding you back. No amount of fashionable sweater vests was going to make the nigh-stereotypical nerd popular with a crowd, even at a school like Midtown High.  
  
Still, despite the fact that you two meeting came under less than ideal circumstances the friendship you both made was fast and strong. Ned was the guy who always had your back and was always up for hanging out. Sure he could get a little spooked every now and then but you could never really think of a time when you needed some backup that Ned wasn't there to see to it. You tried to do the same for him though, again, you weren't quite much to look at. Thankfully most of the bullying was social so just being there was enough in most cases. Your friendship was also great because, as it turned out-  
  
"Dude, are you seeing what I'm seeing? Look at this building man! It looks like a friggin' supervillain lair, right?"  
  
You and Ned were both nerds not just in the brains department but in the culture department. When you were younger... and, Hell, even now you both enjoyed building Lego sets in your free time. You both enjoyed similar movies, though your tastes varied slightly, and you both consumed a lot of media. Like a lot of media. Granted it was mostly at Ned's house, the internet back at Aunt May and Uncle Ben's wasn't so great for streaming, but still! You chuckled slightly at Ned's point, glancing back at Oscorp for a moment before trying to dive back into the conversation with him.  
  
...  
  
Crap, he was right. It did look like a supervillain lair. Well add that to the list of things that was going to be on your mind today.  
  
"I know man... man it friggin' sucks that we couldn't go to Stark Industries." You again bemoaned the fate of your original destination for the field trip, Ned just nodding in agreement as you both started walking with the rest of the group in toward Oscorp.  
  
"I know man, I know... but at least you can still appreciate this. You know a lot more about chemistry and biotech and stuff like that than I do... Oscorp doesn't really do advances in computer tech and A.I. though." Yeah, you supposed that out of the two of you that you did get the most out of coming to Oscorp still. Ned was definitely way more interested in computer technology and its advancements, even more so than you. You liked to consider yourself a bit more jack of all trades, a guy who knew a lot about a lot of subjects. Ned though? Ned 'loved' computers, loved debating about A.I. and was so looking forward to going to Stark Industries to try and learn more about their advancements.  
  
Heck, it was his wizardry with computers that led to some of your more... dare you say it, clandestine activities whenever the two of you hung out? The sort of illicit and immoral practices that you were sure Aunt May and Uncle Ben wouldn't approve of. The-  
  
"So hey... I found another streaming site that had the latest seasonal anime on it. You want to come over to my house this weekend and binge?"  
  
...  
  
Okay so maybe pirating anime wasn't exactly super clandestine, illicit or necessarily immoral activity. Still, it was the most exciting thing that tended to happen in your life... as... wow.  
  
Actually that was kind of pathetic now that you thought about it.  
  
But Hell, even if your school life was going to be boring and drab the least you could do was to be the king of the pirates with your best friend.  
  
"Absolutely man. I'll talk to my Aunt and Uncle about it after school."  
  
"Awesome. Fall's really lookin' up this year man." With that the two of you passed through the threshold to Oscorp, entering this building that, you weren't going to lie, you were really dreading this past day. You took a deep breath and released it as you passed through the threshold, ready for... well, something right? There had to be something on the other side of this door, at this place that had been at the back of your mind concerning your parents.  
  
There was... but... weirdly enough, it wasn't quite what you were expecting.  
  
"Dude... holy... I mean... _duuuuude!"_ It was... just so amazing. Whatever fear you had, whatever doubts you felt about coming to Oscorp just slowly but surely dissolved in your chest as you looked around. This place was a friggin marvel! The vertical nature of the building lent itself to just this spectacular view as soon as you stepped in; level upon level, floor upon floor of laboratories extending back into the building, dozens of people, hundreds of them, maybe even thousands of them busily working amidst the various floors working on who knew what! Tech being moved across the floors and test results being delivered to the necessary people. All of it given the glossy finish of a highly advanced and highly polished front lobby that just... oh.  
  
It just screamed that 'the future was here at Oscorp'.  
  
Maybe this wasn't such a bad consolation trip after all?  
  
That was the tenor of the field trip as you all began moving about Oscorp, being presented on a guided tour of the building as you all just soaked in the amazing technological advancements being worked on, the high tech on display and the amazing laboratories that you were paying witness to. Any one of these Oscorp lads made your own little basement set up feel so quaint and, frankly, pathetic by comparison. You were so envious but at the same time so utterly blown away! Ned, for his part, was nerding out right along with you. Sure he wasn't getting what he might've necessarily wanted but Ned was still very much aware of how awesome the stuff you all were seeing was! There was no question, Stark Industries was at the top but Oscorp was no slouch either.  
  
By the time you guys managed to make it up to the third floor, however, your gaze caught notice of something that... well, it didn't belong. That was weird to say, sure; there were so many new and fantastic things that Oscorp was giving peeks at that any one of them could've felt like they were jumping right out of a sci-fi novel that wasn't fit for the real world. This though... this just didn't fit with what you thought of when you thought Oscorp. When you thought Oscorp you thought bio-engineering and chemistry. Advances in medicine and gene therapy and the sort of practical technology that improved people's day to day lives. Not... well...  
  
"Hey uh, what are those over there?" You called out to the tour guide, pointing over to the various members of staff who were transporting this very rack with... well, it almost kind of looked like a pair of engines? Like pretty big ones; not so big that they wouldn't fit on something like one of those rocket cars but not tiny either like for a drone. They also had a design that looked similar to rotary fans, even had a casing like it was protecting people from sticking their hands in there but... well, that description didn't quite do them justice. Whatever they were members of staff were quickly, or as quickly as they could, taking it over to an elevator in the back of the floor. The woman just smiled and nodded as she pointed over.  
  
"Ah, a recent acquisition by Oscorp Industries. You see, due to... recent fluctuations in the marketplace a great number of government contracts have been opened up for technologies that would look to upgrade certain aspects of the weaponry and technology being used by today's active duty-"  
  
It really doesn't even take a moment for you to quickly parse through what she's talking about; with Stark Industries abandoning its weapons division other tech companies were looking to swoop in and work with the US government. By the sounds of it Oscorp acquired some kind of tech that would give them an in and a way to earn one of these big contracts. It always sucked that tech was used for things like weapons and killing people and that the business aspect seemed to get in front of other stuff but... well, that seemed to be the sad reality of it.  
  
"-right now we're transferring it to some of our engineering departments to get to work on better understanding the technology so we can hopefully move it beyond the prototype phase and start making some practical use out of it!" The tour guide finished, earning some impressed nods from the rest of the students.  
  


"Man, wonder who they got this stuff from. It looks pretty friggin' cool, right?" Ned asked, looking over at the engines as you nodded.  
  
"They do... whoever sold them probably got a good deal for 'em." You commented idly, still somewhat lost in thought as you puzzled this over. That did raise an important question; where did Oscorp get this, exactly? This tech looked pretty sharp and judging by how far along it looked it was probably about finished. By now a lot of companies would've been talking this kind of stuff up but you really hadn't heard anything about it this past month. Your first time even seeing something like this. Agh, it was going to bug you if you couldn't try and remember what it was... what made that particular task even more annoying was the fact that there was some plane flying low over the building and the noise was just kind of echoing a bit. You tried your best to ignore it, hoping it'd go away on it's own but...  
  
Wait... was it getting closer?  
  
 ***CRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!*  
**  
That was your last thought before your world was sent tumbling for the next couple seconds. You heard the smashing of plate glass immediately erupt from the foyer in front of the building, crashing and cracking down on the ground floors below as the roar of engines now echoed loudly in the building. It got closer and closer in the next few seconds before you and a bunch of other kids in the tour guide were blown over by a sudden gust of disturbance and wind. Your hair was wildly flipping about and, after taking a moment to readjust your glasses, you look up to see what exactly it is that knocked you to the ground...  
  
For a moment, you really wish you hadn't.  
  
Standing perched on top of the guard rails separating your group from falling off the third floor, the metal bent and groaning under the metal talons that gripped them while his engines kept him just barely floating above them, was... a man, a machine? It was hard to tell just trying to take all the details in. An old flight bomber jacket with this fur trim flipped up around his collar was the only thing that signaled to you that whatever was under all that metal was a man trying to keep warm. Otherwise the [great metal wings](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/4f/b0/4c4fb0d1b010bca2a756a0df2d5a4299.png) that stretched out from his back, the sounds of those roaring engines coming from devices planted right smack dab at the end of those wings, spinning and shaking slightly as their metal casing barely kept them covered.  
  
The man's face... well, there wasn't one. All that looked back at you was a metal mask and helmet with deep, glowing green visors that did their best to take in everything.  
  
You were pretty sure you were having an asthmatic fit with how hard you were breathing.  
  
The man's visor looked toward the back of the building and, for a moment, the green glow that made up his 'eyes' seemed to focus in on what was back there... before it turned back to look at your tour group. For a moment you can actually see his body recoil a bit, a slight lean back to his shoulders as he takes you all in, shaking his head as he does.  
  
...  
  
 **"... Osborn..."** You shudder, the distorted voice coming through the mask echoing slightly unable to hide any of the venom that positively spilled off of the man's words. He shook his head and, for a moment, looked ready to pounce, causing your group to scurry back as far as you could.  
  
"SECURITY! STOP RIGHT THERE YOU FREAK!" A couple of guards stationed on the floor ran up, guns drawn and aimed at the metal man before you. Eyes focused in on them and, for a moment, the man raised his arms up...  
  
You suddenly hear the whirring of gears and metal as the stranger flings his arm forth in a swinging motion, his visor's lights blinking and variably glowing as the spear-like ends of his wings fire out from the ends of it, sending themselves flying toward the two armed guards. The pair panic and you fear for the worst but, to your relief, the spears catch them on their uniforms, practically knocking them off their feet and sending them flying back a ways, being pinned to a nearby pillar for one and a wall for the other as, with yet more grinding of metal and gears, new spear-like feathers slot out of the stranger's wings. Finally his gaze seems to catch someone, a scientist, as he... just flies past all of you. He soars through the air and places himself between the employee and an exit, his clawed feet giving him the height advantage, even if his floating wouldn't have, as he looked down at the young woman.  
  
 **"The elevator, where does it go?"** His modified voice is easy enough to catch above the racket of panicked people on the other floors quickly running away and, for a moment, you almost catch what the woman he's confronted before you're shaken by-  
  
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE, EVERYBODY RUN!" Ned snaps you out of your stupor as he jostles you and forces you to your feet, your best friend crying out in a desperate bit of panic that manages to rouse the rest of your class. Immediately broken of their shell shocked state they start running for exits as fast as they can, even as the pushes the scientist aside, apparently done with her. A couple more security guards rush him in the meanwhile, apparently hoping to get the better of him... but the guy just blasts his engines, blowing them away and slamming them into nearby furniture and walls, before he starts soaring back toward you all. Each of you scream and duck your heads but, again, the stranger just flies past all of you exiting back into the open air of the front of the building before starting his ascent up. You hear chaos and gunshots follow him up, wincing as all the noise rings in your ears. You look back, your classmates getting up and making a break for it now that this mysterious man has, apparently, left you all alone.  
  
You get up, wheezing a bit from the stress as you move to follow them. As you do though... well, you hear some pained groans. You look over, the various guards and people disrupted by this stranger moving about as they too moved to run for their lives if they could. The guards pinned to the wall did their best to try and reach for the spears holding them, their arms, shoulders or bodies lightly bleeding as the edge of those feathers seemed to lightly cut into them. The guards blasted away by the engines stumbled, groaning as they held onto bruised or sprained limbs as they tried to make an escape. Scientists ran and just did their best to try to get ground...  
  
Osborn.  
  
That's what he said right?  
  
You bespectacled vision follows your classmates as they do their best to run down the flights of stairs that carried them up here, their mass of bodies congesting in the path down but... but everyone would get down eventually...  
  
Your gaze, however, also caught a set of stairs off on the side. A fire escape it seemed, popped open in a time of emergency with staff running down and away toward the stairs your own classmates now occupied. Stairs going up could be seen amidst the panicked people. You lick your lips...

...  
  
Oh... Oh man, this was just... too crazy. Like, this was dumb. This was unbelievably, undeniably unrelentingly dumb! All you had to do was run down some stairs! Heck, you could call out to your classmates and get them to run down the stairs! That'd be heroic enough right? That'd be your good deed for the day! Then you could just run to safety and wait for this whole mess you pass you by! That's all you needed to do!  
  
So do it!  
  
"H-HEY! EVERYONE! HEY!" You quickly waved your arms despite your heavy breathing, trying to get the attentions of the various students. Perhaps unsurprisingly Ned immediately snaps his head back your way and the sudden jerk of your overweight friend gets some of the other students to look your way. "There's some kind of staff stairwell over there! If you guys split off you can go down that and-"  
  
"YOU HEARD HIM, EVERYBODY RUN FOR THE STAIRS!" The rest of the students don't even react as Ned calls out for the rest of them. Honestly between him just going with your instruction and running and then his call to the other students it seems to get a good number of your group's attention. It was probably incidental but Ned ends up being some help; a good solid chunk of the students who had been cluttering up the main stairway end up breaking off and heading for the staff stairwell. You swallow the lump in your throat as you look towards it yourself, running as fast as your asthmatic body can allow as you make a run directly for the stairwell...  
  
...  
  
You do stop though, your breathing heavy as you hear the pained groans and the high-pitched gasps of the guards pinned to the walls. Your glasses, uneven, still allow you to look over at them and see them.  
  
"Peter what are you doing, we gotta go!" You look back to the stairwell and, despite how fast he was running before to get to the stairs, Ned was indeed there waiting for you. You swallow again as you shake your head, trying to shake off whatever stupid idea that was trying to force its way through your head. You'd done your good deed, you'd helped your classmates, now was the time to run!  
  
...  
  
Now was the time to run!  
  
...  
  
You said... run!  
  
...  
  
Dammit.  
  
"Ned you go on ahead I promise I'll be right behind you." You call out as you wave your best friend on. Ned looks uncertain and you're pretty sure he's about to ask what the Hell's wrong with you... which, honestly, was a question you were thinking of asking yourself right now. Still despite that the sound of engines roared to life some odd floors up and Ned, ducking his head down when the noise rattled, seemed to break as far as what limited courage he had left in him.  
  
"Alright, but you'd better be right behind me Peter!" You nod as Ned runs, leaving you alone on the floor to look at the remaining, pinned security guards. They were doing their best to jostle themselves free from the walls but with how they were pinned down and how many feathers hit each of them they couldn't get the leverage they needed in order to force themselves free. You quickly looked around... there had to be something you could use for leverage. There was no way you were going to be strong enough on your own to pull those things about but, as ever, with the right amount of torque you could at least try. Thankfully you were provided with just the right torque necessary; one of the legs of the desks had bent its metal and snapped when a security guard had been blown onto it following the roar of the thing's engines. With a quick run you pick up the metal desk leg and bring it over to one of the guards who just watches you bewildered.  
  
Bewilderment turns into outright confusion when you start jamming the leg into a good spot, getting it in good as you grunt a little.  
  
"What the Hell do you think you're doing you lunatic?"  
  
"I'm using the Power of Archimedes!"  
  
...  
  
"Fucking... what?" You glance down at him surprised at that as you momentarily readjust your glasses.  
  
"You know... Archimedes? Great Classical Mathematician and Engineer? Torque? H-He said that if he could stand in the right place with a long enough lever he could..." The blank stare the man was now giving you said enough. "... This... probably isn't the time or place for this, is it?"  
  
"Gee, ya think?!"  
  
You just nod in agreement as you quickly go about trying to use the leg as a lever, pulling as best you can as you wince... God, curse your noodle arms! You had the necessary lever but your stupid arms couldn't apply the necessary power to deliver the torque necessary to force this thing off! It was even a lever! They were supposed to make more with less power! You couldn't even manage that! Come on, you wimp, just... just... pull... puuuuuAAAAAAAAAH!  
  
You momentarily wrench your hand back from the desk leg you're using as you swing your hand around, grabbing onto it as a shocking, powerful pain runs up your arm. Oh... oh come on! Please don't let it be something stupid like a heart attack, you really didn't want to get known as some dumb kid who had a heart attack trying to pry a guy from a wall! You looked down at your hand and... oh... oh wow... that was a huge welt growing on your hand. You blinked, swallowing nervously as the area just seemed to swell slightly. Your eyes glanced up and you finally noticed something, something you must've winced while you were closing your eyes trying to force this lever; a singular thread, a little bit of something just hanging down from an vent above you and this guy. Your eyes blinked, your chest starting to feel heavy as you looked around.  
  
On the ground nearby, likely flung there from the sudden swing of your hand was a spider of... wow, a lot of weird different colors. One that seemed to be dying as you spoke.  
  
...  
  
You know...  
  
Y-You'd think more about this but... but...  
  
Crap...  
  
You were burning up.  
  
"K-Kid? Jesus Kid you look like you're dying. Look just... get down the stairs and go. I-I'm sure I'll be able to get myself down and-"  
  
"N-No... I'm... I can do it, don't worry..." You take deep, panting breaths as the heat spreads across your body, causing you to wince as you reach forward and grab the desk leg again. You close your eyes, grit your teeth and just pull... and, thankfully, that seemed to be enough this time. Slowly but surely the feather slides out of his slot in the wall, clanging down on the floor as you heave a deep, weary sigh, your eyes going a bit glassy as you shook your head. Despite how hot you felt, despite how feverish you could've swore you were... you didn't feel... weaker from it all, like you'd expect from a flu or, as now seemed likely, some kind of venom attack...  
  
You...  
  
You were feeling stronger even as you felt worse.  
  
"O-Okay... let's see about getting the rest of those feathers out of the wall and-" You're stopped when you notice the guy using his free arm to tear himself free from the other feathers, using them to rip his clothes as he forced himself off the wall...  
  
...  
  
Wow Aunt May was right. You were too smart for your own good sometimes.  
  
"Thanks for the help kid. Listen, you really do look like shit. You need to get down there and get into an ambulance. Just... leave the other guy to me, I'll get him free."  
  
"... I... I-"  
  


 ***zzzzRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!*  
**  
OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!  
  
EVERY SINGLE HAIR ON YOUR BODY IMMEDIATELY STOOD UP ON END, YOUR NERVES SCREAMING, YOUR MUSCLES TENSING!  
  
ALL OF IT HAPPENING AT ONCE AS IT FELT LIKE YOUR BRAIN WAS JUST SCREAMING SOMETHING AT YOU, JUST YELLING AS LOUDLY AT IT COULD AT THE TOP OF ITS LUNGS!  
  
'MOVE YOU DUMB ASSHOLE OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!'  
  
"MOVE!"  
  
Despite how feverish you feel you immediately grab the guard and jump away from the spot you were standing on and, immediately, that feeling in your brain dies down. As it does however a huge, loud crash echoes in your ear which is immediately followed by another and another and another until two in a row are so loud you'd swear they were right behind you...  
  
You would be right, you'd find, as you looked back to the spot you and the guard were formerly standing. A huge hole in the ceiling and floor just there was all that was left of where the two of you had been, even the thing's feathers now seemed to be swallowed by them. You cautiously move to look down and you find some kind of large machine, banged up beyond recognition, was now down another couple holes before hitting the bottom floor, crushed against the concrete. You look up and find several holes leading up the floors of the building... something must've happened that gave that piece of machinery a one way trip down most of these floors.  
  
"Jesus Christ kid that's two I owe you... seriously now, get out of here! At this point even I'm bailing. Osborn doesn't pay us to deal with shit like this." The guard leaves you to marvel for a moment before heading over to his buddy to free him. You nod slowly; he's right of course but... that feeling in your head rings for a moment and you wince. It's still coming from the upper floors. By the sound of the engines you didn't even need that feeling to tell you that whatever he was he was up there...  
  
And that this feeling, this... sensation? It was... signalling some kind of danger.

You know what? That guy had a strong point; they probably weren't being paid enough to deal with a guy in a suit with giant bird wings throwing around dangerously sharp feathers as spears in order to pin people to walls. Considering that fact you figured that you, as an unpaid student, had probably more than done your good deed for the day by pulling that guy off the wall and keeping him from getting crushed. You were burning up, it felt like you were so sick and yet so strong and this friggin' ringing in your head kept buzzing up toward where that stranger had flown off to. It was all too much; you needed to get going and get to safety... after all, you promised Ned right? What must Ned be thinking given all the time you've spent up here...  
  
He was your best friend, you were his. He was probably worried about what was going on...  
  
...  
  
A little bit of guilt manages to help drown whatever heroic thoughts you were having at the moment. You nod back at the security guard as he starts to pull out the feathers keeping his fellow guard up against the wall. Running as quickly as you could under the circumstances, which is to say a light jog, you immediately start descending the emergency staircase, the traffic down which had by then pretty much dried up. Turns out that most people here at Oscorp were inclined to 'immediately' run at the first sight of giant bird man machine thing rather than stick around and see how things played out...  
  
Surprising you knew. Still it did mean that, after taking your sweet time using torque to save a guy, that you were lightly jogging down these staircases relatively unmolested. Which was good because at this point your lungs pretty much felt like they were burning from the inside out and were... ugh, just not feeling the best at all. Between the panic and all the exertion you'd put yourself under your asthma was acting up and quickly. The fact that, according to your nose, a fire was starting somewhere and... well, you never did do well in smoky environments. This 'really' wasn't the time or the place for an asthma attack after all.  
  
As you run down the stairs though... it's faint at first. You don't even expect that something's wrong for a moment. Then, all at once your body is wracked by horrible, tremendous pains. It's... it's indescribable. It's like every fiber of your being is being torn apart all at once. Every muscle immediately shredded, every tendon snapping off, your heart being forced into fits your lungs just exploding out and collapsing in varying intervals, your skin felt like it was ON FIRE AS EVERY NERVE IN YOUR BODY BURNED IN TREMENDOUS, SEARING WHITE PAIN!  
  
It's entirely unsurprising to you when this shock to your system, this thrumming pain throughout your entire being, makes your head swim and causes you to slip and start falling down the stairs...  
  
Honestly, you're barely even aware of the fact that your feet aren't touching the ground and that you were falling toward concrete for a moment...  
  
But the second your mind snaps back into place, your eyes snap open; if you land at this angle, you're going to break your neck...  
  
Instead you break something else; your grip on reality.  
  
You quickly jut your hands out for the steps themselves, physically catching yourself on a couple of them as you use your arms as springboards to immediately absorb the impact of your fall. You fire off of them, like springs, quickly spinning your body in a movement you can barely control as you go soaring through the air. Without even really breaking a sweat you land on your feet on the next platform of the staircase, a perfect landing as you stick it and keep standing straight up.  
  
...  
  
Your eyes are wide and you're barely breathing as you look back at the staircase at where you just fell before looking back down at the ground...  
  
That...  
  
That wasn't right.  
  
That was impossible.  
  
What the Hell was that?! Y-You weren't capable of stuff like that! I mean, you, you...  
  
WHAT?!  
  
You're snapped out of your panic as the pain, not as severe as before, flares up again. You wrap your arms around your ribs and wince as you curl up into yourself. Your whole body hurt, felt like you'd gone through some combination several mile long run and weightlifting program. Still you felt... fine despite that. Still sick, still burning up, still like you'd rather be in a bed at this moment than anywhere else because you were done with feeling this sore and hurt and tired but...  
  
Fine.  
  
There wasn't anything else wrong with you. This pain wasn't debilitating you, it wasn't keeping you from... you know, flipping around like some kind of Olympic Gymnast! If you felt this terrible you shouldn't be capable of these kinds of things! You should be... you should be...  
  
Running, getting back to running! Just... just ignore it for right now! You could worry about this later! For right now you just needed to get out of Oscorp. You broke off into a sprint down the stairs, not even stopping to notice how easy it felt to breath as you did so, as you just focused on one thing; getting out of Oscorp...  
  
And maybe feeling a bit peeved. So what, you had some kind of... weird... super danger sense or whatever but it didn't warn you about the blindingly horrible pain your body was about to be wracked with!? What kind of cheapskate, stupid danger sense didn't-  
  
 ***zzzzRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!***  
  
You don't even hesitate to listen to the ringing in your head as you jump ahead on the staircase; sure enough with a loud crash and a bang lab equipment bounces around the staircase leading down before landing right where you'd previously been standing. You quickly jump again, going clear over the equipment, as it rolls down the staircase, crashing into the wall of the platform just below you with a band. Whatever's going on up there it's getting chaotic; whatever the bird guy wanted it clearly wasn't this stuff...  
  
In your gut, you're worried that what he wants might just have something to do with Osborn himself.  
  
You can only hope that wherever Osborn is right now it's away from that guy.  
  
Safe again you immediately start running back down the stairs until you reach the ground floor. The door has been shut in the time since the last person went through it, it seems, and you quickly move to open it... perhaps a little too quickly; when you run for the door and push your hand against it you end up denting the metal of the door as you go through it, causing you to gawk as you look back at it...  
  
Between how sick and hurt you were feeling and all of this... you... you were starting to feel scared. This wasn't right. This wasn't natural. This was... this was something else. Something had happened to you...  
  
Something was still happening to you...  
  
"PETER!" You're snapped out of your thoughts, sweat drenching your body as you look toward the voice. It was Ned and some other teachers waving you on and calling you to the front of the building, the front entrance being held open for you as guards and policemen were now doing their best to clear the front of broke plate glass. You don't even hesitate to run over, Ned pulling you out into the crowd of people just watching the chaos from the outside. You turn to look back out at Oscorp, Ned keeping a grip on you.  
  
"Jesus Pete, thank... Hell, I dunno. I was worried for a bit there when I didn't see you man, I thought something had happened to you!" You swallow a thick lump in your throat as you feel the burning, feverish sensation just sink further in while your eyes glassily look across the front of Oscorp, trying to follow the chaos on the upper floors as best you can. It's hard to tell from all the way down here but... well, it's clear some fires were suddenly erupting.  
  
"Pete? Peter!" You look over at Ned, your breathing deep as your best friend just looks at you. "Dude... you look like shit."  
  
"... Thanks Ned, appreciate it..."  
  
"For real though, you look terrible man!" ... Okay, maybe he had a point. You knew, with how badly you felt, that you had to look pretty bad too. He was just laying it out. "Listen, they've called ambulances for folks who got hurt or whatever in the building. Sit tight and I'm sure we can get you some help man..."  
  
Your mind whirs.  
  
The danger sense.  
  
The leaping and jumping you did in the stairwell.  
  
The door...  
  
It all flashes in your mind... your imagination running wild as you think about a potential visit to a hospital...

No... no no no no no. Something was wrong, something was really wrong but... but it wasn't wrong in a normal way. In a way that the doctors... something was weird. Something was different. You couldn't tell if it was good or bad but you could definitely tell that it was abnormal. That it wasn't right... that... that what was happening to you wouldn't be something people could just brush off. You couldn't go to the hospital. You couldn't go let doctors see what was happening to you. What was wrong with you. If you did then, God, who knew what would happen. Would they lock you up? Would they perform tests on you?  
  
What would Aunt May and Uncle Ben think.  
  
No.  
  
No!  
  
This... this couldn't be an option...  
  
"N-Ned... listen... I-I need you to get me home Ned." Your best friend looked down at you, his round face marred by shock as he took you in and just seemed to be stunned into disbelief.  
  
"Peter... listen, you can't see yourself right now man; you don't look good. Look, whatever's wrong you need to go to the hospital dude, you can't-"  
  
"I can't go to the hospital Ned! I-I just... I can't. Please... I'm begging you Ned, you have to get me home somehow. S-Something's happened and I _need_ to get home Ned, please!" You lean against your friend as you beg as hard as you can, the Korean descendant teen before you nervously licking his lips as he looked around in the crowd.  
  
"P-Peter, listen man, it's... you-"  
  
"Uncle Ben and Aunt May... they can't afford me taking an ambulance ride Ned. Not on top of everything else right now! P-Please Ned, just... I need you to do this for me... just take me _home_ please." You mutter weakly as your breath stutters, a slight cough erupting from your chest as your lungs just seem to pop for a moment, your breathing hard. Ned just sweat it out for a moment looking around nervously at the rest of the gathered class and Oscorp Employees. A loud 'crash' echoed out from Oscorp as some machine was tossed out the front glass from the upper levels. You could see the gears turning behind Ned's eyes as he thought his options through.  
  
...  
  
"You need me to do this, huh?" Ned asked, swallowing a huge lump in his throat as he looked around again before fishing into his pocket. "Alright Pete, I'll... I'll help you out. If you need this then I'll do my best. Still man... what... you know, not important right now I guess." You watched Ned lick his lips again as he pulled out his cell phone, the overweight teen speed dialing as he brought the device up to his ear. "You owe me Pete... this is going to get a little embarrassing."  
  
...  
  
Wait, what was he?"  
  
 _"Ned?! OH NED! We saw the news, are you okay honey, are you-"_ You hear Ned's mom's voice on the other end of the line, being so close to your friend. Seemed like Ned was going the most direct path possible... still, you had to wonder how Ned was going to convince his folks to come by. The school was bound to arrange for transportation for you all either home or the hospital surely, so how was... Ned...  
  
You watched, a little stunned, as Ned started taking gasping, hiccuping breaths, sobbing noises getting caught in your best friend's throat as he seemed to feign crying.  
  
"Mom!" _*HIC*_ "Please come get me, m-mom!" _*HIC*_ "T-There was this g-guy and he was, like, some k-kind of killer-" _*HIC*_ "-robot, a-and he attacked us a-and we didn't know what to do and he-" _*HIC*_ "-started just randomly attacking people! Please mom, please, I-I need you to come get meee-heee-heeee-heeeeeeee!"  
  
...  
  
Dear God if you didn't know that Ned was putting on an act you'd be fucking sold. The guy was even forcing out tears. You had kids in the crowd taking in Ned's mini-breakdown and themselves breaking down emotionally, crying as they called their parents to come get them.  
  
 _"N-Ned, b-baby, please listen-"_ Jesus even Mrs. Lee sounded like she was going to start crying, _"-I-I know it must be so scary baby, but the school will arrange to bring you home, do you think you can hang tough baby?"_ An appeal to his manhood. It would likely deeply shame Ned if he had to admit that no, he couldn't hang tough through this and he had to go home ASAP...  
  
Then again you were both 15. So were a lot of the kids on this trip. Heck, in your delirious state you'd swear you even saw Flash pulling out his cellphone and making a call after watching Ned... you were pretty sure you imagined that though. It wasn't unnatural for you all to be this spooked by something like this happening.  
  
"M-Mom... please... I need you to come get me m-mom... I need you..." Oof. Right in the gut that one. You actually heard Mrs. Lee choke back a sob at that before, suddenly-  
  
 ***CRAAAAASH*  
**  
Everyone cries out in shock as, suddenly, you all hear the crashing of yet more plate glass. Heads turn and you all see the strange man fly forth from one of the upper floors of the building, the roar of the engines filling the nearby blocks. In his taloned feet you see that... that invention that Oscorp acquired hanging there, carefully being handled in the metal claws attached to the man's feet. You can barely see his head swivel from all the way up there, as if he's taking in the crowd, before with another roar of his engines he starts soaring forward and then up.  
  
 _"NED I AM COMING RIGHT NOW YOU JUST HOLD ON, I'M GOING STRAIGHT THERE RIGHT NOW!"_ You and Ned barely even pay the call any mind at all as Mrs. Lee hangs up, the both of you just staring and then ducking, fearing that the metal bird man was going to get up to. Still, as it flew it continued to soar up and up and, well, everyone watched as this man climbed up to the clouds and then disappeared from view, the roar of his engines echoing away as he just seemed to disappear into the cloud layer above.  
  
...  
  
"Pete... what the Hell was that?" Ned asked, your friend just utterly and completely flabbergasted as he turned to you in your fevered state for an answer...  
  
Suffice it to say, you didn't have much of one at that moment...  
  
What... what did happen? It was the thought that roamed through your mind as you looked down to the pulsating spot on your hand where the spider had bit you. Your only respite, the only relief, was that you danger sense, whatever it was, finally stopped ringing soon after that stranger had started his ascension toward the clouds.  
  
At least it was some relief...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"Oh my God, you two boys must've been so terrified when all of that happened... God, what is the world even coming to these days? First that business with Stark Industries and now this? This city used to be so safe you know..."  
  
"Y-Yeah mom..." Ned spoke nervously, the both of you packed into the back of Mrs. Lee's car as she drove through the city, tear tracks on the woman's face as, clearly, her own sense of worry and panic at her son's fate had overwhelmed her. On the radio was blasting news broadcasts by various agencies talking about the attack on Oscorp, with interviews by even Mr. Stark of all people denouncing the idea that he had anything to do with the attack on Oscorp.  
  
These past couple days... God they'd just been so crazy... you could barely even comprehend it all...  
  
If you could comprehend much past this fever.  
  
"Peter... are you okay? You're breaking a sweat back there... listen, I know Ned asked me to take you home because he was worried but... do you want me to take you to the hospital, Peter?" You sighed but smiled slightly. Mr. an Mrs. Lee treated you very nicely as one of their son's only friends and best friend. They were a kind couple and really did try their best to make you feel welcome. You couldn't be mad at her for being so worried... but you really just couldn't go to the hospital for this. You-  
  
"Pete's okay mom he's just... you know how asthmatic he is. The whole situation got him to panic and now he's just having a bit of a fit. A little sleep and I'm sure it'll be fine!" Once again Ned with the save as Mrs. Lee nods and goes back to focusing on the road. You swear Ned's quick thinking was a big help today; if 'anyone' else had seen you like this they probably would've carted you off to a hospital where they would've found who knows what when it came to your body. You owed Ned an explanation, even if not a direct one, sometime... but... Gods for right now you just felt so tired.  
  
You wanted to go to bed...  
  
"We're here Peter." Ned said as he shook your shoulder, your best friend snapping you out of it as you looked over and saw your house. You nodded and, groggily, opened the door and stepped out. You didn't even hear Ned and Mrs. Lee's well wishes before you waved back at them, stumbling toward your home. You took deep, heavy breaths as you leaned up against the door; at this time of day Aunt May and Uncle Ben would be at work... you would've called but, God, you didn't want to worry them when you were in this state. You just... you just needed to sleep this off...  
  
Please be able to sleep this off, _please._  
  
You shamble through the house as you make your way to the kitchen, getting something cold to drink, some water, before dumping it on your head to help you cool down. You shamble over to a notepad, rip it off, and do your best to scrawl a note for Uncle Ben and Aunt May when they get home... though it might not be the most legible now that you looked at it...  
  
You'd worry about it later though...  
  
For now you just slowly climbed your way up the stairs, forced your way into your room and...  
  
God... your bed.  
  
So soft...  
  
So comfortable...  
  
...  
  
... Just a little sleep...  
  
...

... Oh... oh God...  
  
Your everything was sore.  
  
You groaned to yourself as you rolled over in bed, wincing as you felt your entire body just kind of quake with a bit of soreness. It was like... well you suppose you've never really exercised before now that you thought about it. Well, the way you felt right now is how you expect people like Flash must've felt after practicing sports for several hours on end before collapsing int bed. Your muscles felt exhausted and just throbbed in some light pain, you absolutely stank of sweat and, judging by how wet the covers and your clothes felt, you'd probably been sweating out whatever the Hell it was in your system this entire...  
  
What time was it anyway?  
  
You slowly, blearily, blinked your eyes open as you looked over at a nearby clock. You narrow your gaze at the fuzzy readout and slap around... where had you put your glasses before passing out like you had? You groan in frustration when you can't find them and end up just picking up the alarm clock and dragging it closer so you could read it; 11:32 P.M....  
  
You'd slept the entire day away, basically. Fantastic.  
  
You groan as you wipe some of the remaining sweat off of your face; you felt absolutely disgusting. Your skin was either drenched from laying in bed or had all his dried off crap on you... you needed a shower right now. Maybe needed to change your sheets to. You kick off the covers and sheets, not noticing as they fly clear across the room, as you force yourself to stand, wincing as your muscles pulled and relaxed with each of your movements. A nice hot shower would get you clean, get you smelling good again and would, hopefully, get your muscles to stop aching so badly. You force yourself onto your feet and start walking over to the bathroom. You move to open the doorknob and-  
  
 ***Clu-Clank!*  
**  
...  
  
You blearily look down at your hand, bringing up the doorknob for inspection... well... that wasn't right... You look back over to the door and lean down, getting really close up to try and see the mechanisms without your glasses. Okay so... come on this wasn't that hard. Just push it back into place, turn it and then maybe have Uncle Ben look at it in the morning. Even if you couldn't see surely it wouldn't be that hard to get it back in, right? So you do your best to line up the bits, a hard task without your glasses, and then you quickly shove it in...  
  
Thankfully the door does open... mostly because you just end up basically forcing it open, the wood of the door frame cracking as it bends to allow the remaining metal bits of the door handle to pass.  
  
...  
  
Okay starting to get a little bit more spooked now.  
  
You know what.  
  
Doesn't matter.  
  
You'll understand what's going on just as soon as you get that hot shower.  
  
Now all you had to do was let go of the doorknob and get undressed.  
  
...  
  
Let go of the doorknob and get undressed.  
  
......  
  
LET GO OF THE DOORKNOB AND GET UNDRESSED!  
  
You groan a bit as you bring up the hand still tightly gripping the doorknob, wildly shaking it about as you try to force the metal knob out of your grip. What was this?! Did Uncle Ben come in to work on your door while you were asleep? Did he accidentally plaster in glue or something!? Okay, yeah, that sounded completely stupid and ridiculous but between the broken door handle and the knob sitting in your hand you really didn't have a lot of other offers up for consideration. You really whip your hand around trying to get this damn thing out of your grip when-  
  
 ***CLUNK!***  
  
"AAAH!" You grip your face as the doorknob suddenly flies free of your grip, stumbling backwards after all your futzing and spinning about trying to forcefully sling the knob out of your hand. As you do so you stumble around, end up tripping on the knob as it lands back on the ground. With a yelp you end up with your legs flying straight over your head as you land on your back on the floor.  
  
"... Okay... oooooowwww..." You groan as you feel your back muscles, sore from whatever you'd sweated out... well, they don't hurt too much from the fall, really. Not like you'd expect. Your face only really hurts because of the knob as it whipped itself right into your forehead. You wince as you reach up, expecting to find a goose egg from the knob just slapping you right in the middle of your forehead. You actually end up surprising yourself by not finding that... furthermore you end up shocked by what you do find...  
  
A familiar feel of plastic and glass...  
  
...  
  
You slowly reach up and take your glasses off your face, blinking in surprise as your eyes readjust and... suddenly you can see. You look down at your glasses, confirming that they'd been on your face this entire time and... God, not again. You shake your hand around and this time get a sense of relief when your glasses de-stick from your hands much more quickly. You stand back up, looking your hands over as you take a close look... it looks like there's... little hairs on them. Like, on your palms and fingertips...  
  
...  
  
Please don't let what those cheesy old films say about hairy palms be true, please, that would just... ugh...  
  
However, that's not the only thing you take notice of when you're examining your hands. Your gaze follows your arm down from your periphery and you find that it looks... kind of different than how you're used to. The pencil thin wrist that barely connected your hand to the rest of your body wasn't there anymore, for one. You lick your lips subconsciously as you go about quickly removing your shirt in a fit of mania, unsure of what you'll find but... feeling something, in your gut. It's hard as every now and then your sweater vest and dress shirt end up sticking to your hands but, surely enough, you get your clothes off in good time and quickly scramble to find a mirror. You end up actually going back to the bathroom to take a good, long look at yourself and...  
  
And...  
  
Uh.  
  
You were...  
  
You were pretty sure [THOSE](https://em.wattpad.com/33f585db1c0f63554f422e6cfeebb8eb77ed6b6c/68747470733a2f2f36382e6d656469612e74756d626c722e636f6d2f33373336313234653366623730343261303261336130333461633735663235322f74756d626c725f6f68786f7536534e56593176657a6978716f315f313238302e706e67?s=fit&h=360&w=360&q=80) weren't there before. For a moment you just stare long and hard at yourself, eyes tracing over every new inch of muscle, every trail left between each of them. You... you had abs, of all things. You, Peter Parker, who hadn't been able to do so much as ten push ups at once before, had abs. Arm muscles, pecs...  
  
You...  
  
You looked strong.  
  
You looked powerful. You brought a hand up to reach for your face, trying to pinch it to see if you're dreaming when you see it. It's there, in the reflection of the mirror.  
  
The faintest trace leftover from that spider bite...  
  
That... that spider's bite.  
  
You end up stumbling out of the bathroom, your mind in a bit of a fog as you run your hands through your hair. Thankfully it seemed like whatever it was that made your hands stick it didn't work on you. Good to know. You look down at your hands, clenching them and relaxing them time and time again as you just... just *think* about what happened.  
  
Your eyes glance up and over to the window. To the outside world.  
  
...

Okay Pete just... okay. Think for a moment. You can totally handle this! Sure you just woke up with crazy powers, even crazier than the ones you went to bed with earlier today but hey, that's fine right? I mean, it isn't fine for a variety of reasons, the one topping the list being 'Stuff like this really shouldn't be possible at all' but... but you could worry about that later. For now you just wanted two things; find out just what was up with your powers... the scientific way...  
  
Yeah. Don't approach this like Peter Parker, sweaty fifteen year old kid who just woke up after feeling like he was going to keel over and die! You can't think like a panicking teenager. Think like... like a scientist! Approach this scientifically and test these things out!  
  
Like... well, sweaty, nerdy you who understood a lot about the scientific method and only freaked out if he learned something really cool.  
  
...  
  
Just... just get on with it.  
  
So first thing on the agenda for you to test; your... sticky powers? Ugh, okay, dropping that name real quick. That just didn't sound pleasant at all. Your... stick'em powers? Stick'um powers? Powers of amazing adhesion? The Amazing van der Waals Effect? Waals' Wall Crawling...  
  
Maybe you could workshop this later?  
  
Okay test time. You walk over to a nearby wall and stick your hand to it, giving it a slow tug. Sure enough your hand ends up stick to the wall. You put your other hand on it give it a tug and yep, two hands stuck to the wall now. Fantastic... now what? How were you supposed to unstick from the wall exactly? How could you-  
  
 ***Pop*  
**  
Like some kind of suction effect your hands just kind of popped off the wall, causing you to blink in confusion. You press your hands back up but, sure enough, they're easy enough to pull off again and no amount of force gets them to stick on again.  
  
...  
  
Stick on?  
  
Press your hands, they get stuck.  
  
Stick off?  
  
Pull your hands they pop right off.  
  
...  
  
There was no way it was this stupidly simple, was it? Then again you weren't even sure why you were asking yourself this question; of all the things that happened in the past several hours, why was the ability to consciously, or subconsciously, turn your powers on and off through a quick thought the thing that ended up befuddling you? Okay so... practice. Time to see just how much weight you could hold up. You decide to start with you and you quickly press your hands up against the wall. It's with a nervous gasp that you unstick one hand and stretch it on up as far above you as it can go... before pulling yourself up with the other hand once you were good and stuck again.  
  
For a moment you shake and shimmy under the precarious balance of sticking to a wall by one hand. It was kind of a trippy effect but, soon enough, you place your other hand down and you're good.  
  
Okay so you can support yourself on the wall with just one hand. It's even easier with two.  
  
That... that was pretty friggin' cool, you weren't gonna lie. Okay next up... what else could you stick off, exactly? You pressed your feet against the wall and soon found them sticking as well. A few subconscious thoughts later and you were unsticking your feet just as easily as your hands. Okay, time for some tests... elbows... knees... thighs... torso...  
  
... Your butt...  
  
No.  
  
Nothing else stuck to the wall. Not even your head. Okay so, good to know; keep at least one hand or foot on a wall at all times if you were going to stick to it...  
  
...  
  
You couldn't help yourself. The basics understood you go ahead and take some baby steps with this ability. You slowly move along the wall, crawling along like some kind of... well, Hell, a spider obviously. After you start feeling confident you even decide to go ahead and see if you can stick to the ceiling...  
  
Sure enough it isn't long before you're hanging upside down from your feet, walking on the ceiling as naturally as you would be walking on the floor...  
  
Okay.  
  
This was just way too cool. You grin as you make your way back over to a wall, stick your hands to it, unstuck your feet, flip down, disconnect your hands and stick the landing on the floor. Alright. Super Sticky, Not So Icky powers tested you decided to move on to see if you'd gone full Charles Atlas and went from ['Mac' to Man](http://cartoonician.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/atlas-top-half.jpg).  
  
...  
  
God. You know, you really were a geek.  
  
Anyway, self-deprecation aside, you really should see just how strong you were. So, simple tests for this one, Science Man Parker; just keep picking things up one-handed until you find something that's hard to lift. Easy! Okay, start small... uh... your lamp?  
  
Well come on, that wouldn't have been hard for you to lift before... for... you know, a while anyway. Maybe if you tried to hold it up for like a half hour it'd get a little hard. Okay ignoring that you bend down and move on to your entire counter.  
  
Okay, still easy and this time decidedly more impressive; you needed to scoot this thing into your room when Uncle Ben and Aunt May got it for you... and your insistence on doing it yourself lead to no small amount of sprays from your inhaler to help keep from suffering an asthma attack. Next up, your homework desk...  
  
Still uh... still pretty easy. Like you were still able to lift this above your head without much effort. Okay but still, no more shenanigans. You'd been playing around up to this point but now it was time to get serious with your bed!  
  
...  
  
Wow the underside of your bed was 'filthy'. Like, for real, how did you not suffer an asthma attack before tonight with all that dust and stuff built up underneath it. You'd need to clean it up sometime later...  
  
You know, now that you could easily lift your bed up over your head with one hand...  
  
...  
  
You put your bed back down and then move around to the center of the open space in your room. You take a few quick breaths before leaping up into the air and spinning backward, landing effortlessly on your feet as part of the jump. You do it again and again and again and each time you silently land on your feet...  
  
...  
  
Last test; you reach up, grab a bit of your forearm skin and you twist it... maybe not as hard as you can, God knows you'd probably tear it off at that point, but pretty hard.  
  
...  
  
Okay, ow, ow, ow!  
  
Definitely not dreaming...  
  
...  
  
D-Definitely not dreaming.  
  
DEFINITELY NOT DREAMING!  
  
YOU HAD SUPER POWERS!  
  
YOU HAD STICK'EM POWERS!  
  
YOU HAD SUPER STRENGTH!  
  
YOU HAD JUMPING SKILLS THAT'D PUT MARIO 'JUMPMAN' MARIO TO SHAME!  
  
OH MY GOD!  
  
You barely stop yourself from laughing out loud at the realization as you quickly fumble for your phone, dialing buttons as you get ready to shoot a quick text message over to Ned. This was great! This was amazing! Gone was the old Peter Parker, Puny Peter Parker. The kid who got serially ribbed by Flash Thompson for being such a huge geek, who got ignored by girls because he was such a scrawny nobody, to the kid who needed a pair of thick glasses to see five feet away from his face or needed to keep an inhaler around just to be sure he didn't die at any given moment!  
  
You were strong now! You could see now! You were fast now! You were... you were...  
  
All of that...  
  
In less than 24 hours.  
  
After a mysterious Spider Bite at Oscorp.  
  
With powers that nobody on Earth had or should have according to what you knew about biology and science...  
  
You had rapidly mutated several abilities not native to the human genome, your body practically snapping into a new shape to suit it with a level of strength that no ordinary human could possess.  
  
...  
  
You mutated. Rapidly, powerfully and with seemingly no pattern except that it made you strong. Made you fast... made you able to stick to walls like a spider...  
  
And gave you some kind of mental tick that you still didn't entirely understand with that Danger Sense.  
  
In short you were the literal dictionary definition of a freak of nature...  
  
Hoo boy.  
  
You collapsed back into your bed as you kept the phone to the side, staring up at the ceiling you'd just gotten done crawling around on not fifteen minutes ago. This... this was kind of a lot to take in. You looked back over at your phone, seeing the message you'd been primed to send over to Ned. For a moment you do consider deleting it but, with a breath, you send it over.  
  
 _"I think I figured out was was happening yesterday, but it's the kind of thing you talk about in person and not over the phone."_  
  
You did promise Ned some kind of explanation for what happened. Texting him to show that you were alright was the least you could do right now, even if you likely couldn't meet with him for a a little while; it was after midnight after all, the guy was probably asleep by now.  
  
Super powers.  
  
Super abilities...  
  
Strange ones. Ones that shouldn't have been possible for a human...  
  
It... it raised a lot of thoughts on your mind. Made you think about a lot of things. You supposed it was a good thing you got so much sleep; as bone tired as you were your mind was going a mile a minute.  
  
You needed to think...  
  
What were you going to do tomorrow? What would you do the day after that...  
  
What were you going to do now that you had these powers?  
  
How were you going to handle them?  
  
...  
  
Could you even handle them?  
  
What would you do with them?  
  
You sigh as you rub your face, groaning a bit as you shook your head.  
  
Take it one step at a time Parker.  
  
After all, it's not like you didn't have all night to think about it...


	2. Preparations Part 1 of 6

Okay Pete just... just gotta forgo the sweater vest look and go with some loose cloths. Shouldn't be too hard, right? You had a lot of loose clothes considering how small you were; t-shirts and the like didn't fit you too well so... well, now you fit into them slightly better. A lot better, really. Still if you just stretched them out a bit you could hide the physique of yours right? As far as the glasses go...  
  
Well, here's hoping Spider Powers would help you fight headaches and nausea, right?  
  
You walk down the stairs groggily, having fallen back asleep sometime last night while you'd been pondering this whole Spider-Power thing. You're also groggy because, dear God, with these glasses on your newly fixed vision was throwing a fit. Blurry was a word for how everything five feet away from you looked. Headache inducing was perhaps also appropriate. Still, Peter Parker walking down the stairs with no glasses on and walking around like he knew exactly where he was going wasn't exactly what you had in mind for today... at least, not until you really decided on a few things. In addition you'd gone ahead and put yourself into as loose fitting casual wear as you could get your hands on; it wasn't much considering how much beefier you were but, hey, it'd have to do for now.  
  
Note to self; when you went raiding the attic later maybe looking around for some old clothes Uncle Ben put away wouldn't be such a bad idea.  
  
Eventually you make it down the stairs, mercifully avoiding tripping or stumbling around thanks to your vision, and walk out to find Uncle Ben on the couch, paper unfolded and leafing through it as he kept the morning news on in the background. No surprise that old fuss and feathers, whoever that guy was, made appearances on both your uncle's newspaper and on the morning news. The 'terrorist attack' at Oscorp being talked about seemingly nonstop. Well, you put the air quotes up but, honestly, you didn't know what to call it other than that either. It was an attack, it was at Oscorp and it was terrifying. Bird brain took something but until you understood what... well, an act of terror did seem to fit the bill.  
  
It seemed your descent down the stairs didn't go unnoticed as Uncle Ben looked up from his paper and, upon seeing you, a huge grin split the man's face as he placed the newspaper to the side.  
  
"Peter! You're finally up? Gotta say there son, I was starting to think you were going to sleep two days away." The audible relief in your uncle's voice mixed with the quick hug he wrapped you up in caused you to frown; yeah, finding you in the state you were in yesterday probably didn't do their worried much good... sleeping for nearly a whole day straight probably didn't make them feel much better. It was why you wanted to come down here; reassure them that you were okay.  
  
"Haha, well you know I'm still feeling a little tired Uncle Ben but... well, can't stay in bed forever, right?" You hug your uncle back, being _very_ careful to control your strength as you do so. The older man laughs heartily as he slaps his hand on your shoulder, either ignoring or not noticing the muscles that've built up around there as he turned his head to the kitchen.  
  
"May! Hope you've been making a big breakfast; turns out we'll be having Pete's company after all!"  
  
"Oh wonderful... and poor dear! He must be starving. Give me a few more minutes!"  
  
...  
  
God, you know, you were starving. You didn't even sneak downstairs to grab a bite to eat while you were up thinking last night you were so distracted. Now though... well, the smell of bacon and eggs awoke in you a deep hunger, the likes of which would probably put King Kong to shame.  
  
"How about we have a seat while May finishes cooking Pete. Was real worried about you there kiddo." You nodded at that as you and Uncle Ben took a seat on the couch, relaxing slightly as the news continued to lightly play in the background.  
  
"Y-Yeah, I'm sure you were. Sorry about that, I didn't mean to worry you and May." Ben just smiled and waved his hand in the air dismissively.  
  
"Ah I know you didn't Pete. You can't help when those kinds of attacks hit you after all. Just with everything that happened and coming home to find you so deep asleep and sweatin' it out... well, it was a bit of a shock for us. We were relieved of course that you weren't seriously hurt but... well..." Ben frowns a bit, as if the older man is fighting to find the right words for the situation.  
  
"I understand Uncle Ben. Trust me, I'm alright now." Technically better than alright, depending on how you looked at it... then again depending on how you looked at it, most folks would probably say you were in a worse condition with all the mutations.  
  
"Glad to hear it Pete. With how little we knew we were a bit worried that it might've been something more serious than one of your attacks. The news... well, it hasn't exactly been clear. Photos of the guy have been posted around and we've got some sketchy videos but so far everything's been tight lipped." No surprise; an attack like that they probably want to keep close to the vest, especially Oscorp. Especially with the guy who did this still flying the coop...  
  
You know maybe you shouldn't be making these quips right now but... well, it was kind of how you coped.  
  
Still, it seemed like not knowing what exactly happened to you while it was all going down was what was on Ben's mind.

"It was..." God how would you even go about this? Well, first things first obviously, no talking about the Spider Bite or anything related to it. What were you going to say, after all? 'Gee whiz Uncle Ben, not only was I caught in the middle of a terrorist attack yesterday but a genetic experiment at Oscorp sunk its fangs into me and now I'm suddenly some kind of mutate with abilities he's gained in the span of twenty-four hours'? Yeah, that'd go over well for sure, you thought. So it was easy enough to just leave out the Spider Bite and related consequences... but... how did you even describe the attack? It all came so fast, so sudden... what could you do to communicate to Ben how scary it was, how much fear it stoked...  
  
Well, you supposed you could start there.  
  
"It was... really scary, if I'm being honest. Like one minute I'm in the middle of this amazing tour seeing all this tech that Oscorp was developing, all these science experiments they were finishing and... I dunno. One moment I hear plane engines the next the whole world goes insane! Some guy crashes through the front of the building with a giant pair of metal wings looking like some kind of villain from a DC Comic. He just... perched himself near us and started taking down guards like it was nothing, blasting them away with his engines or pinning them to the walls with these giant metal feathers that made up his look."  
  
"No kidding? Sounds like our flying friend was dedicated to a theme." You chuckle; in all honesty, you think part of your dry sense of humor came from Uncle Ben and his retorts.  
  
"I'm not kidding. Guy even had this crazy mask and visor on that glowed green." You shook your head. "From there... it just kind of felt like I was going crazy. This guy was just shooting through the air like it was nothing, bringing down parts of the labs or setting things on fire as he ascended the building. I-I didn't even know what to do at first, Ned had to shake me out of just being frozen. I-I wasn't sure what to do but... well, after a moment I just kind of decided to do whatever I could do to help. I... uh, I pointed out an escape to my classmates and then I used the Power of Archimedes-"  
  
"Who?"  
  
Darn it Pete, reel it back!  
  
"Uh, I used torque by jamming some metal into the whole the guy's feathers had gotten stuck in to try and help unpin the guards. I didn't want to just leave them hanging there and... well, somehow I managed to get them out... but, well..." You were trying your best to think up an excuse for the next part when-  
  
"I'm guessing you pushing yourself triggered an attack."  
  
"Yeah! Exactly!" ... Welp, you could successfully say that it didn't feel great to lie right to Ben's face but there you go. "Plus some parts of the building were catching fire and there was all this dust and stuff from machines falling and being destroyed and... well, after I got one guard loose he went to go get his friends while I booked it. Not exactly brave maybe-"  
  
"Hardly Pete. You stuck around and helped a man out that you had no responsibility to kiddo. Might've even saved his life in the process if this Vulture fellow was so dangerous-"  
  
"Vulture?" You ask, confused as Uncle Ben picked up his copy of the Daily Bugle.  
  
"The name [The Bugle's](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/page-65#post-52361179) sticking him with." You nodded... well at least now you weren't going to refer to him mentally as the stranger or that weirdo. Vulture. That's a name that could stick pretty easily. "At any rate Pete; what you did was a brave thing regardless for how long you stuck around. You're fifteen kiddo and you ain't exactly an athlete.... er, no offense."  
  
"None taken Uncle Ben." After all, before today you really weren't an athlete.  
  
"However you still put your own neck on the line to save someone who needed it. That's textbook bravery right there." You blush a little at your Uncle's praise. "I'm guessing the story from there is pretty straight forward."  
  
Hahahahahahahahaha.  
  
Hahahahahaahaaaaaahahaa!  
  
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!  
  
...  
  
"Yeah, totally straightforward from there. I escaped, Ned called his mom to pick us up and then... well, I was brought home." Your internal chorus of laughter notwithstanding, you're pretty sure you keep a nice little poker face. "I was in pretty rough shape but... well, I know how tough it can be for you guys when it comes to money so..." Uncle Ben frowned slightly at that.  
  
"So you avoided going to the hospital to deal with your attack because of that."  
  
"I just... didn't want to put you guys in a tough spot was all." Uncle Ben looks down for a moment, the older man seemingly collecting his thoughts on the matter.  
  
"Well Peter... I'm not gonna lie, that's thoughtful of you," You sigh in relief at this, "-but I don't want you to do something like that again, okay kiddo?" Immediately that sigh of relief catches in your throat.  
  
"But Uncle Ben-"  
  
"No buts Pete. Listen, I appreciate that you thought of that like us Peter, really I do. You're a caring kid Peter and a boy I know will grow up into a fine young man... but I do want you to be able to grow up into being that man Peter. It's one thing to help people in need and be risky with it... it's another to genuinely put your health on the line for the sake of my and May's pocket book. That's not something a fifteen year old like you should be concerned with Peter. We're your guardians, your family. It's our job to support you Peter, not the other way around. If you were genuinely sick or hurt and something happened because you were trying to spare May and I a little hit to the wallet... well, Peter I don't think I'd quite live with myself knowing I put that kind of worry in your head."  
  
"Uncle Ben..." You watch as the older man smiles, reaching out with his big paw of a hand as he shakes you by the shoulder.  
  
"Tell you what Pete; you let May and I worry about things like money. You worry about growing up right and healthy. That sound like a deal, kiddo?"

"... Okay Uncle Ben."  
  
That's really all you could say at this point. I mean what else were you supposed to say to him; sorry but no I'm not going to focus on my own health, that I won't agree to not letting you worry? Sure, you might go back on this in the future... considering how fast your powers manifested from that bite and everything else, Heck, you suppose you were already going back on that agreement. Still... standing in front of your Uncle, seeing that look on his face... well, you didn't exactly have it in you to say that you wouldn't let them know if you needed help.  
  
Uncle Ben seemed to just grin at that as he patted you on the shoulder. "Good Peter, good. Glad to hear it. Certainly takes a load off my mind and I'm sure it'll take a load off of May's."  
  
"Speaking of who!" You both jostle a bit when May's voice suddenly emerges, the fifty-something year old woman sticking her head through a doorway as she, first, offered a relieved smile your way and then just fixed you both with an amused expression. "You two had best get in here and start eating breakfast before it gets cold." The smell of Aunt May's cooking slowly permeated through and... God you weren't going to lie. It mad you remember just how horribly hungry you felt. You were definitely up for some of May's breakfast right about now. Judging by the slightly subconscious lick of his lips, Ben was inclined to agree.  
  
"Well you heard your Aunt Pete." The older man laughed as he pushed himself up off his seat, the two of you quickly funneling into the kitchen to eat...  
  
It was a nice, normal change of pace from the past twenty or so hours, really. Good food, good company and just... normalcy.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Wow.  
  
You know.  
  
You felt like a total scrub now that you realized how short of a walk it was to Ned's house from your own. Before today you would've still needed Ben or May or someone to drive you over there because you'd be hit by your asthma if you stayed out and kept going for too long, especially during the Summer.  
  
Now though? Well, now you just needed to walk for about twenty minutes and you were there.  
  
Another point in favor of Spider Powers being convenient, you guess.  
  
It isn't long after arriving at the Lee Residence, Mrs. Lee checking you over to make sure you're alright and doing what she can to say how much she worried about you and how she's glad that you and Ned were alright slowing you down, that you manage to make your way up to the Holy City of Nerd Culture that is Ned Lee's room...  
  
You had to resist crying a single tear of joy every single time you stepped in there. Several Lego sets that you and Ned had completed over your years of friendship placed here and there, a powerful computer, or well powerful compared to your barely held together laptop, sat on a desk with some good speakers, with a connection to an actual honest to goodness television that Ned had in his room. Nothing like what someone like Harry Osborn must've had, it was still pretty manageable as far as a TV went. Still, the fact that he could connect it via HDMI to his computer and it was bigger than the family TV your family had in your living room? Ah, sublime, especially for watching streams of various anime and other shows that you couldn't hope to catch with your own internet connection.  
  
You know, as much as you loved hanging with Ned in his room, you did try to invite him over to your house a couple times. It seemed... wrong to just keep going over to his house somehow. Like you were using him for the relative way he was better off compared to your own family. You really didn't want that impression to stick; Ned was your friend, after all! Your shared interest in Geek-dom was what stuck you two together, not his stuff...  
  
You weren't going to lie though, the day Ned suggested that you all just hang out at his room from now on because 'He had the better stuff' was a moment of relief to you. It wasn't like Ned was showing off either; he did have the better TV, the better computer, the better internet. That he just thought it was more fun to share it with you when you all were hanging out was appreciated.  
  
God knows you two had spent 'hours' hanging out at this point to prove it.  
  
"Pete! Dude! You're alive!"  
  
You're snapped out of your reverence for the Nerd Holy Site when Ned runs up to you and pats you on the shoulder, shaking you a bit as you just grin at him and laugh.  
  
"Of course I'm alive, I didn't look that bad... did I?" You watch as Ned licks his lips a bit, a surefire sign that he's... thinking about it. "Oh God I looked that bad didn't I?"  
  
"Let's just say I definitely had to distract mom from your shakes. You're welcome by the way." You nod as you both close the door behind you, Ned taking a seat on his bed while you pull up a chair.  
  
"Yeah... listen, about that Ned, thank you. I can't say how much it means to me that you... you know... totally humiliated yourself in a phone call with your mom to help me out." God the memory of the 'actual tears' that Ned forced himself to cry, in front of the entire rest of your class, was still fresh in your mind. Never let it be said that Ned Lee didn't give it one-hundred and ten percent when it came to doing something.  
  
"It's cool Pete, my mom's kinda... you know, protective anyway so it didn't change much there... and, well, Flash and the other guys were gonna find something to rib me about later right?" You knew Ned better than to just take this at one hundred percent face value. Ned didn't exactly enjoy being the butt of jokes after all, the two of you griped about it with each other quite a bit. Still, you could tell that he meant it in this case; that some ribbing about this in specific wasn't going to be so bad if it meant it helped you out.  
  
Ned was a bro, to be sure.  
  
"Anyway, I got your text. You figured something out, Pete?" Ned asked, leaning forward a bit. You weren't surprised he asked; you basically invited that kind of questioning with that text. You took a deep breath and ran your hand through your hair quickly as you gathered your thoughts.

Okay... uh... start with something simple. Something... something that could immediately be communicated without you sounding crazy...  
  
...  
  
"I have abs." You quickly lifted up your shirt to expose your six-pack abs.  
  
Genius Parker, real smooth maneuver there.  
  
Ned gawks for a moment, seemingly as surprised by the sudden move as you are befuddled by your own slapdash approach. After his surprise, however, Ned just chuckles as he walks forward a bit.  
  
"Pete, listen... I've tried it once too. Really, I did. Trust me, the drawn on abs trick doesn't work."  
  
...  
  
"You've tried drawing on abs? When, wh-"  
  
"I mean come on, are you telling me that in one day you ended up growing a-" Ned tried to emphasize his point by poking you in the stomach... only for his finger to uselessly jump back from your solid abs without leaving an indent, "-totally real, actually solid six pack abs." The tone of Ned's voice changed from a sort of sardonic disbelief to shocked awe in an instant. With one poke Ned had been forced to come to blow with the realities that you, yes you, Peter Parker suddenly had abs. "P-Peter, wha-what, how-"  
  
"Okay Ned before you freak out and before I say anything else I really need you to promise me you aren't going to say anything to anyone, alright? This is serious and I need a promise Ned... I also need you to promise me you aren't going to freak out and scream."  
  
...  
  
"I only promise to try."  
  
...  
  
"Good enough." You end up saying as you end up ditching your glasses and tossing them to the side as you look Ned right in the eyes without much difficulty. "Ned... I have super powers."  
  
...  
  
"You, you... show me." Rather than outright deny it like before Ned just licked his lips, crossing his arms as he covered his mouth, the shock of the moment still clear on his face. You just nodded and decided to do the one thing that'd prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you had powers...  
  
You crawled up Ned's wall and hung from the ceiling by your hands and feet, sticking to it with your Stick'em powers...  
  
Still really needed to workshop a name.  
  
...  
  
At that point a silent scream, more akin to a dog whistle, escaped Ned's throat as he just stared up at you, eyes wide and a grin slowly growing on his face as he looked up at you.  
  
"DUDE!" You un-stick one of your hands and wave it at him to quiet him down, bringing Ned back into the moment. "... Dude you totally have super powers..." Ned whispered in a hushed voice that did 'nothing' to hide how excited he was. At that point you drop from the ceiling, easily turning your body so that you land gracefully on your feet to get back to standing right in front of your best friend.  
  
"... I know..." You whisper back, easily as, if not more, excited than your friend as he runs his hands through his hair.  
  
"You stuck to the ceiling!"  
  
"I did! I also have this Danger Sense thing!"  
  
While you two slowly get a bit louder you both do your absolute best to keep it quiet enough to avoid people outside the room from hearing; your dual excitement is simply too much to keep it to absolutely hushed whispers.  
  
"That's so cool!"  
  
"I know! I also got this super strength!"  
  
"No?!"  
  
"Yes!!"  
  
"Oh my God that is so friggin' cool!"  
  
"I know!"  
  
The two of you just spend the next couple minutes marveling over your sudden change in ability like this, Ned quizzing you on your powers and abilities while you did your best to answer him as to what exactly you had and what limits you'd found out.  
  
"Dude how did this even happen?!"  
  
"I think it was a Spider that bit me at Oscorp!" You see Ned blink, confused, before you elaborate. "There was this spider that came out of the vents during the attack and bit my head. Left a nasty welt at the time and soon after... I dunno, I just started getting these powers!"  
  
"Dude what if it was a radioactive Spider?"  
  
"... Dude, radiation doesn't work like that."  
  
"Do you have a better explanation Pete?!"  
  
...  
  
Well when the man was right, he was right. You didn't have a better explanation.  
  
"Well whatever it was, it's pretty clearly the Spider..."  
  
"Yeah, I think Wall Crawling seals that deal right there."  
  
... Huh. Wall Crawling. You could go with that.  
  
"It must've been some kind of experiment Oscorp was running. Maybe genetically altering spiders with... urgh, radiation or something else? It didn't look like any spider I've ever seen before, that's for certain." Ned nodded at that, rubbing his hands together as he seemed to think.  
  
"So when it bit you it... gave you, like, it's spidery goodness or something?"  
  
"I guess? The Spider died so soon after so I doubt I could've gotten an answer out of it if I tried..." You rub your neck as you take a moment to think. "Still, that doesn't feel entirely right. The way I was going through it... the process felt more like I was going through rapid mutations than being 'given' something. It kind of hurt..."  
  
"Explains the attack you were going through." Ned commented idly, your overweight best friend sitting back down on his bed as you just nodded.  
  
"Yeah, it does... anyway, that's about all I've figured out at this point. Everything else is just kind of a question mark at this point." Ned licked his lips at that, the two of you remaining in silence as you both really just absorbed what you'd said.  
  
...  
  
"So... what now?"  
  
...  
  
"Huh?" You asked, kind of blindsided as Ned clapped his hands together.  
  
"What now? You've got super strength, super agility, super extra who knows what. You can crawl on walls, you don't have asthma or those glasses anymore... you're kind of something else right now Peter. You're strong, you're fast... you're just-"  
  
"Super..." Ned nods as you finish his thought, causing you to turn your gaze back over to your glasses.  
  
"This changes everything Pete... so... what now?"  
  
Ned was right of course... you just... you really didn't have the time to really think about it until now. 'What now'? What were you supposed to do now. You had the power, you had the speed... you had the weird abilities. Right now you were probably stronger and faster than Flash, more healthy than anyone you knew... more powerful than anyone in the NYPD too. Uncle Ben was right, you realized, as you picked up your glasses and looked at them. You weren't athletic before and it was dangerous for you before. You were weak back then... you were just scrawny, sneeze-y Peter Parker. 'Puny' Parker as King Kong like to put it.  
  
You didn't have a power before, like Uncle Ben said. You just didn't and no one would behold you to that... but now you did... you did have power...  
  
What now. That was the question...

Still though, just looking at your hands in Ned's room, you knew normalcy was kind of a long shot at this point. This... this just made everything different! Who knew what kinds of things you could get up to at this point! You could... you could be the star of the Football Team and make Flash Thompson look like a loser! You could go out and do who knew what in order to make money with these powers! You could finally be anything you wanted to be! You had power now, you weren't just Puny Parker anymore! The kind of guy who'd get pushed around, the kind of guy who'd panic at a moment's notice...  
  
The kind of guy who still stuck around to help someone in trouble even when it was dangerous.  
  
The kind of guy Ben said he was proud of for taking that kind of risk when he had no responsibility to...  
  
...  
  
You had power now alright.  
  
"I've... I guess I've been spending so much time focusing on the fact that I have them to think about how I'd actually want to use them. First things first, probably should figure out my limits or something what kind of other powers I have. Also, you know, maybe keep an eye out on whether or not I'm actually dying. All of this is happening so fast and who knows if it's actually stopping... so, you know, that should probably be a priority."  
  
"Y-Yeah, I'd say so..." The mention of death seems to have swallowed up some of Ned's enthusiasm. Admittedly it swallowed up some of your own too but, well, it was something you had to think of. These kind of rapid mutations weren't natural and we more in line with something cancer or radiation poisoning. You didn't feel sick... Heck, just the opposite, you felt amazing! Still, it was better to keep an eye out and make sure you weren't going to turn into Jeff Goldblum at a moment's notice...  
  
You meant in _The Fly_ , turning into normal Jeff Goldblum might've been pretty cool.  
  
"After that... well, it's probably best that I use these powers to help people, right?" At that, Ned looked up at you, your best friend's eyes twinkling as you clench your hands into fists. "I've got power now... I can actually make a difference in people's lives. Seems only right that I use it to make people's lives better, right?" It's... it's what'd make Ben proud, it seemed like.  
  
"Dude... you don't just have super powers! You're a superhero!"  
  
...  
  
Oh my God.  
  
He was right!  
  
"Like Tony Stark!" You cried out as Ned just laughed.  
  
"I was thinking maybe like... I dunno, Batman but hey, you keep being a fanboy Pete." If it weren't for the fact that you'd accidentally brain him you probably would've thrown one of his pillows at him for that one.  
  
"Still, you're onto something. Being a superhero's cool but if Batman comics have taught me anything, it's that they need two things; training and gadgets."  
  
"I mean unless you're Superman." You nod at that sage wisdom.  
  
"True, but I don't think I'm anywhere near Superman's level." You scratch the back of your head at that, before a sudden realization hits you. "You could even be my guy in the chair!"  
  
...  
  
Ned quickly ran over to where you put your glasses down, picked them up and put them on his face. What, why-  
  
"My God..." Oh that's why! As Ned spoke he dramatically removed your glasses, his eyes blinking blearily as they recovered from the sudden distortion that looking through your glasses must've put them through. "You're right! I can like... crap, I'm not as good with the whole tinkering thing like you are... hrmmm..." Ned kind of slaps his stomach to. "Not much of a physical trainer myself either." You rub your chin in thought as you consider this...  
  
"Well hey, you could be, like, my not-crippled Oracle!"  
  
"... Dude that's perfect! I don't even have to be Batgirl first! Which, you know, probably for the best... don't think I'd look to good in her costume."  
  
...  
  
You're relieved when both you and Ned simultaneously shudder at the mental image of Ned in Barbara Gordon's getup.  
  
"Still though, that is probably the best way I could help! I can, like, keep an eye on stuff going on in the city and like call it in for you!" You grin at that, feeling like everything was coming together perfectly.  
  
"... Dude is this really happening?" You actually have to take a step back and think about it for a moment. Like, this was going so quickly; you got the powers, you had the plan, you were here with your best friend talking about all of this... it was just moving so fast, and for a moment you felt like you were gonna faint.  
  
Thankfully Ned clapped his hand around your shoulder, the overweight teen laughing as he shook you.  
  
"It sounds like it's happening to me man!" He glanced towards the door of the bedroom, a grin on his face as he started to whisper. "Peter Parker... superhero... God, what should we even call you?"  
  
You smile as you ribbed Ned a bit, thankful for the guy's support. You would have to think of a name but...  
  
This was really happening.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Okay... time for plan sneaky Parker...  
  
Or well, plan. You pretty much just took a moment while Ben and May were out to go ahead and pull down the access to the attic, using your newfound speed and agility to quickly ascend before closing the entrance behind you. You cough a bit as some dust gets disturbed and, once again, you're thankful that your abilities seem to have gotten rid of your asthma... it'd have 'really' sucked to have come up here and died because of dust of all things.  
  
Alright then, onto the next step of the plan. You didn't want to grab too much; some extra clothes Uncle Ben put away here that he might not have fit in anymore to help keep yourself stocked in loose fitting clothes for one. The more important thing for you to grab though was something that was on your mind about this whole powers thing. You needed to practice with them to get better at them, obviously; you were still kind of getting the hang of them and you wanted to find a place in Queens you could stomp around without disturbing Aunt May or Uncle Ben... problem, what if someone came around your stomping grounds and saw Peter Parker, asthmatic nerd, suddenly leaping about or doing other crazy things?  
  
Solution to that problem; a slick disguise...  
  
Or well...  
  
'Slick'...  
  
Yeah in truth this disguise was going to be more 'functional' than slick, mostly because of what you were raiding up here. Old clothes that Aunt May and Uncle Ben would hopefully not miss if you turned it into a makeshift disguise. It wasn't like you didn't have materials; there were sweatshirts, hoodies, ski masks, goggles, gloves, various boots, long pants and long-sleeved shirts... a real treasure trove of 'I don't want to give away what I look like or be recognized while I'm out' materials. Heck you even knew that there was some spray paint in the garage if you wanted to add a personal flair to it. All you had to do was put something together and 'boom' instant anonymity.  
  
Now...  
  
Question was what exactly 'were' you going to go with? You could probably only afford to take a couple changes of clothes for this disguise if you wanted the lost clothes to go unnoticed so you probably wanted to stick with a single theme.  
  
What should you go with...

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

There was no surer sign that this was happening then the fact that you were currently Wall Crawling your way up the side of an abandoned building in... well, in your [superhero costume](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/149199392203735040/512390595537403916/IMG_20181114_171608.jpg)! There really was no better way to put it; a hoodie and some jeans to cover you generally with some old work gloves and shoes that Uncle Ben had stored away in the attic, some knee pads and elbow pads that you'd gotten when Uncle Ben and May taught you how to ride a bike and a full face mask. You think it might've been for the winter weather that really liked to hit New York; you could practically hear Uncle Ben giving some huge story about how he had to walk to school back and forth in three feet of snow.  
  
The goggles you had to go looking through some of the boxes filled with a lot of swimwear... hopefully no one's worn any of that in a while. Still, putting the mask over them it let you cover up most of your body. Heck if you rolled the legs down and your sleeves down it might've covered even more but... well, it was already tenuous for you that your Wall Crawling could work through gloves and your shoes. No point in testing just how many layers it'd take before it'd stop working, right?  
  
You eventually reach the top of the building in question and take a look around; no surprise that with development moving around so rapidly in a place like New York that things would get left behind. Heck, an entire train line in Queens was basically shut down at this point, with most stops looking more like the front page in 'haunted properties' magazine than a place where humans had ever actually gone through before.  
  
[The Rockaway Beach Branch of The Long Island Railway](https://assets.atlasobscura.com/media/W1siZiIsInVwbG9hZHMvcGxhY2VfaW1hZ2VzLzZiZGMzMmRiZjA0YzZlN2RkZF9JTUdfNTA3OS5KUEciXSxbInAiLCJ0aHVtYiIsIngzOTA-Il0sWyJwIiwiY29udmVydCIsIi1xdWFsaXR5IDgxIC1hdXRvLW9yaWVudCJdXQ) presented you with numerous such stops and locations, as well as railways long abandoned that were now flanked and covered by dense foliage. It was literally perfect; whole buildings for you to sneak into in ways your Wall Crawling made easy and long tracks of railway you could run along or jog along depending on what you were doing. You could sit inside a building and just do whatever with no one seeing or take a run where most people wouldn't even pay you a lick of attention.  
  
If someone did see you? Well they might be weirded out by the getup but... well... did that matter? So long as they didn't know you were Peter Parker then whether the get up might've made them think twice just wasn't an issue.  
  
You could get around like this. You could hone your powers and abilities in this place.  
  
You could... you could actually get ready to help people.  
  
To be an honest to goodness superhero.  
  
You stopped moving on the wall for a bit in order to just kind of rest on your haunches, your feet stuck to the wall as you just took a moment to breath all this in...  
  
This was such a huge change. Such a huge new step in your life...  
  
It's be hard to adjust. Even harder to make sure that nothing went wrong. That you wouldn't worry May or Ben or worse.  
  
...  
  
But you meant what you said at Ned's.  
  
You had these powers now. Best way to use them was to help other people.  
  
It was the right thing to do...  
  
So, it was time to get yourself ready to do just that. You took a deep breath and crawled into the building. It's been a long weekend but... well, you suppose you could fit in a preliminary workout, right?


	3. Preparations Part 2 of 6

You know... there was a certain charm to this little shop that Aunt May owned.

You took your glasses off for a moment so that you could actually get a better look around shop and so that you could actually go ahead and let this headache you had die. The glasses on their own were bad enough but when combined with the blur of colors that made up the shop, well, you were glad when the shop was relatively empty so you could take a few moments to just take your glasses off and see normally. Once you did the full splendor of the little shop your Aunt owned filter in.  [ May Parker's Handicrafts ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/56/a6/c6/56a6c662b9d23114fc7fc6386c6ff3d2.jpg) , a store that probably could've used a little more workshopping on the name if you were being completely honest, was a pretty simple craft shop. It wasn't like the big huge department stores you could find elsewhere in New York, especially on Manhattan, but it had this sort of warm and cozy atmosphere to it.

Probably because, unlike a lot of those department stores, Aunt May turned her eye for art and color not just to the products she had on her shelves but also to the general... well, feeling of the store itself. Everything from the paint job to the color of the carpet to the way the myriad rainbow of colors of cloth, yarn and other little materials came together to just give this vibe of warmth. Something that caught your eye from the moment you peeked through the front window and just said 'hey there, why don't you come in, put your feet up and relax for a bit'? It was honestly amazingly soothing and why you were so often willing to babysit the shop for a bit while Aunt May ran errands for it...

Admittedly today you were feeling a little more anxious than relaxed. Despite how the shop just did everything in its power to lull you into that comfortable 'May Parker' feeling, your mind constantly flitted back to what you could be doing right now. Your powers weren't even one week old yet so you still had a long way to go to figure out just what you were going to do with them. How you were going to make them work for you, how you were going to make sure you were ready to use them when you would go off on this whole superhero thing. Ned was doing his best to get ready as fast as he could too so every moment you spent in Aunt May's shop was a moment that you weren't spending at your little super home away from home getting more used to your powers.

...

Of course you knew the reason why though. God help you if you couldn't say no when May Parker of all people asked you a favor. In fact you were pretty sure that you didn't know of anyone who could say no to her when she got around to genuinely asking for a favor a little help. Even Uncle Ben seemed positively whipped... though if he was bothered by that fact he certainly didn't show it.

You're snapped out of your thoughts when you see Aunt May's car pull back in front of the shop, relief and slight dread coming back to you all at once. On the one hand, good, she was back from her errands! On the other hand... well that meant it was time to put the glasses back on.

Deep breaths Pete, deep breaths.

When you put your glasses back on it actually takes your eyes a moment to adjust as best they can to what they're seeing... it's a blur at first but as you wince a bit to get a better idea of what you're seeing...

"Oh jeez, Aunt May! You could've come in and asked for help!" You jog, not run Peter Parker almost never ran, over to the front door and opened it, reaching out to grab some box, pretty light in your super strength enhanced arms, from Aunt May's arms, leaving her with just the one as you moved out of the way for Aunt May to get in.

"Oh, Peter! Come now, I'm not an old woman yet. Besides, you and your class are supposed to be recovering from that nasty incident at Oscorp." There's a slight chiding there but your Aunt certainly doesn't move to take the box out of your hands as you both move into the shop.

"Aunt May, I didn't even get hit by anything, I'm-" Aunt May fixed you with a look, "-... I mean, okay, I know I looked pretty bad when I was in bed but..." She really still didn't look impressed. "... I'll be good, ma'am." Your aunt chuckled as she set her box down on the counter before taking the box you'd been carrying out of your arms and doing the same.

"Honestly Peter I do appreciate it but this is supposed to be about you resting. I'm not some rickety old woman who'll fall apart at any second but you... well, you say you're better but I do worry Peter." You nod at that as Aunt May circled around to the other side of the counter, reaching under and pulling out an x-acto knife to open up the boxes. "It was bad enough I called you out here but I really just needed to run some errands..."

"Aunt May, it's fine, I'm not gonna fall apart at any moment either." You mean, you hoped you wouldn't fall apart at any moment. With this whole mutation thing it still seemed like something weird like that might be in the cards. Who knew; maybe you'd fall apart into thousands of spiders who'd then have to work together to make a rough shape of your body. Spiders Parker or something like that.

...

Weird thought but you were used to having those at this point.

"I know, but I don't want you to stress yourself too much. Your health wasn't great to begin with Peter... you have been taking good care of yourself, right?"

You open your mouth and then close it as you take a moment to think.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"WAAAAAAAH! WAH-PA-PA-PA-POW! KEEE-YAAAAAAA!"

If anyone was around to see you right now you would've probably died from embarrassment on the spot, mask or no mask. After all, being seen kicking and punching ghostly figures in the middle of nowhere, by yourself, making all kinds of Bruce Lee noises was the kind of thing that ended up getting you YouTube infamous if someone actually caught you in the act or found a recording of it. That poor Star Wars Kid probably never lived it down...

Still, you couldn't help yourself as you threw phantom punch after punch, doing your best to hone... some kind of fighting ability. Yeah it looked 'really' ugly and yeah anyone who actually knew how to fight would probably find about a thousand different ways to criticize your form or point out how you could be doing a lot better than you were...

But hey, you were a superhero in the making with amazing reflexes and super strength and they weren't, so what were they gonna do? Beat you in a fight? As if.

"Haha! Fear me villain, for I, the Spectacularly Amazing Arachnid-Kid have come to put an end to your evil doing ways!"

...

Yeah you were still work shopping the name. You kind of liked Arachnid-Kid just because it rhymed but Ned was a pretty quick 'no' on that one. In hindsight you couldn't blame him... for one, any name that had 'Boy' or 'Kid' in it just kind of felt... demeaning? It was like an instant pass for anyone who talked to you to just act condescending to you... and you would've made it so easy for them! You could already think of all the hack comebacks people could make for that.

_ "Heh, didn't anyone tell you to never send a boy to do a man's job?" _

_ "Listen kid, I know you think you're cute, but the kiddie pool is that way." _

_ " _ **_Boi._ ** _ " _

Heck, maybe that's why Superboy ended up going crazy and punching the universe; poor dope just got sick of his stupid hero name. A shame that punch didn't actually fix the comic he was a part of.

Still, you could focus more on your name later. For now? More pretending to be a stone-cold bad ass!

"You think you're going to get away from me villain? Better yet, you think you can beat me in a fight? Man, you're as dumb as you look! Don't you know what I can do? I can do this!" You quickly wrenched around and punched at the broken remains of a concrete pillar in the abandoned station. On the one hand this was so friggin' cool because when you punched it a solid chunk of the pillar actually broke off and scattered across the floor! Totally made you look like a complete and total cool guy, if you did say so yourself...

On the other hand?

"... OOOOOOWWWWWW!" The false veneer of cool and bad-ass-ittude immediately faded away as you reached up to cradle your hand, giving it a quick shake as you tried work through the pain. "OW OW OW OW OW, THAT WAS SO STUPID, WHY DID I DO THAT, OOOOOOOW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW!"

Okay, lesson learned; you were super strong but punching concrete hurt...

Maybe that should've been more obvious.

Maybe you weren't as smart as you thought you were...

Wow you really hoped you didn't accidentally break your hand.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"Y-Yeah, totally Aunt May. Been taking real good care of myself."

It also turned out you had a power you didn't know about; just resting for a while pretty much fixed up your hand good as new. Self-healing as part of the whole Spider thing huh? You guessed it made sense, there were species of spiders that could do that; there was one without eyelids or some protective film over their eyes that would go blind from the sun when it came up because it'd burn their retinas out but they'd regrow it later. Little known fact but really-

"Uh huh..." Aunt May responded, fixing you with a raised eyebrow.

...

"Okay so maybe I've been... a little active." You admitted though keeping it super vague. May just sighed, your aunt smiling to herself as she opened the boxes and started pulling out... a lot of red, gold and white yarn.

"You Parker men, I swear. Ben Parker could be struck by the plague, coughing his lunges out of his chest and bleeding from the eyes and he'd still insist on going to work. Your father wasn't much better in that regard." You blushed a bit at that, sheepishly scratching the back of your head as Aunt May clucked her tongue in amusement. "Just... don't push yourself okay Peter?"

"Of course Aunt May." You didn't even need to take a moment to say so which seemed to be enough for May. Finally you decided to ask the obvious question. "So what's up with all this yarn Aunt May? You aren't out of it, it's still all stocked on the shelves." Indeed, plenty of yarn of the colors she was pulling out on the shelves, so what gave?

"Oh well... that stock is there meant for the customers. With what's been going on lately I've needed to restock on my own personal supply." You tilt your head curiously to the side at this, Aunt May offering a slight grin as she reached under the counter again and tossed something your way...

Wait, this was the paper from the  [ morning of the news conference ](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/9/92/Who-Is-The-Iron-Man-Newspaper-2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160313055954) . The one where Tony Stark...

"Your little science idol ended up making a few waves Peter." Oh you had no doubt of that as you looked back up at Aunt May who was fiddling with the materials she was pulling out of the boxes. "The Iron Man was already popular sort when he was just flying around attack terrorist for the past while now. However, after Tony Stark went and made that little announcement of his? Well, a lot of people are very excited. Mrs. Thompson, Eugene's mother I'm sure you remember her-" Yeah, you remembered Mrs. Thompson. She was a nice lady... hard to figure out exactly how as rough around the edges as Eugene was raised by her, "-said that her youngest wanted a little something. Now, there's nothing official out there yet but I figured, well..."

"... Aunt May, did you?" You watch as a slight curl of the lips formed on Aunt May's face as she reached under the counter again and... and...

You weren't sure whether to laugh or cry at seeing your own personal hero  [ reduced to such a state ](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/09/28/d4/0928d4dcde7d5dc2880f4fd6a7926707--amigurumi-patterns-amigurumi-crochet.jpg) .

"Anna Watson and I have been talking about it a little bit. Apparently people on The Facebook would really like something like this. So I figure, well, what's the harm in doing a couple little commissions on the side while I'm not handling business here in the shop?"

...

_ The Facebook? _

You grinned a little bit as you put your hands on your hips, keeping your shoulders slouched. You didn't want to look actually intimidating with your new physique while you were still hiding it, after all.

"May Reilly Parker." You started, a disbelieving edge to your voice as you fixed your aunt with a faux-offended expression. "Does Tony Stark know you're infringing on his copyright? I think I might just have to turn you in, little lady." In all honesty, Tony Stark probably didn't have a care in the world about whether or not a small shop owner in Queens was making little yarn dolls out of the likeness of his superhero identity, Iron Man.

Still, it was fun to mess around and have fun with Aunt May, especially considering she was so prone to playing along with the joke.

"Oh dear! I knew better than to show this off around Ben Parker, I should've known that you would've picked up his ways, Peter." May chortled as she waved the little doll at you, its head bouncing around ever so slightly as she just looked over to the cash register. "Honestly though, there's no need for us to get the police involved. Surely my nephew would take a small bribe... say, his allowance, to look the other way?" Aunt May offered, causing you to press a hand to your chest as you looked at her in dismay.

Hah. Dis-'May'. You'd have to find a way to work that into an actual joke later.

"I can't believe this! First copyright infringement and now bribery?! I should've seen this coming sooner; you always did have a loose relationship with the law, May Reilly! Now your truly villainous behavior is plain for us all to see! A regular Red Skull in the making! To think that one of my own family would go down such a dark and insidious path!" You threw yourself against the counter dramatically, causing may to laugh loudly as you waved your hands about. "At least tell me why, Aunt May?! What drove you to such dark depths!?"

"You mean aside from the money?" Aunt May offered with a slight cackle while you just grinned.

"I mean, yeah, aside from the money." You watch as Aunt May set the little yarn doll to the side as she continued unpacking, slapping your hands away anytime you tried to help out as she did so.

"Oh Peter, it's just such an exciting time for so many people. Even people my age are a little overwhelmed by this whole 'Iron Man' excitement, haha." You grinned a little at that as you pull up a chair.

"I didn't think you were that big of a fan of Tony Stark, Aunt May?" You asked, genuinely curious, as May shrugged her shoulders.

"Well it's not so much about Tony Stark, Peter. I still think the man's rather irresponsible... and I am cautious about you taking too much after him. Goodness knows if he dedicated all of his time to doing good rather than drinking and partying he probably could've gone to the moon and back thrice now with what brains God gave him." You nodded, having gotten this lecture about personal responsibility from Aunt May before. "So I'm not so much excited about Mr. Stark in particular as I am about the idea of this Iron Man. Understand Peter, the last honest to goodness superhero that was out there was... well, you know."

"Captain America." You offered as May smiled.

"Exactly right. Captain Steve Rogers, the Super Soldier. My goodness, even back when I was a little girl that man was still so prominent in people's imaginations. Boys wanted to grow up to be like him and... well, he certainly wasn't hard on the eyes."

"Aunt May!" You do your best to shake off the mental image of Aunt May staring goo-goo eyes at a poster of Steve Rogers as she just had a small laugh at your expense.

"They even still showed the small films he starred in for the United States government during our Health Classes and what not. Captain America was a symbol for so long... but, well, the poor man did die in 1945. There's only so long the strength of that image could hold up." You nodded at that; aside from Superman who, after his initial hopping around for movement phase, ended up taking some inspiration from the Cap with his whole 'Truth, Justice and The American Way' business, there really wasn't a lot of Captain America left in the popular culture. The world's first and only superhero...

Up until now.

"When that Iron Man first showed up... goodness, it must've been how my parents felt watching Steve Rogers first appear in news reels. Extraordinary people doing extraordinary things for the benefits of others. Ben was having a field day!" You remembered that! Uncle Ben was quick to latch on to the idea of the Iron Man when he made his appearance; an example of someone using their extraordinary abilities or means to help people and improve the world. "The Captain's legacy is still big in the army, so Ben was brought up looking up to that man as an example of how people should act, how they should behave. While I can't exactly condone Tony Stark's personal life... Ben is right that he's put himself out there to help make the world a better place. So... well, after so many years we have ourselves another superhero." Aunt May smiled as she picked up the little yarn doll again.

"So of course people are going to be... well, a little excited is probably underselling it." The older woman giggled a bit as she shook her head. "Honestly though, I can hardly blame anyone who'd get excited over superheroes. If it's this exciting from this distance, could you imagine actually being there, or, better yet, being in that suit of armor?" You glanced off to the side for a moment.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"Hah! With reflexes faster than even the twitchiest EVO champion and the speed and grace that would put a dozen house cats to shame, the Amazing... Arthropod-Bod..."

Wow that one was really bad. Immediately nixing that one.

"... Anyway, the... me! I quickly jump from place to place, maneuvering around the criminal elements of New York with such speed and flash that no one will be able to keep up!"

You were hopping around a small makeshift obstacle course you'd pushed together at your little hovel away from home at the abandoned train station, doing flips, jumps and tricks in mid-air as you sought to improve your reflexes and get a little better at this whole parkour thing. With any luck you'd be in the midst of doing some sweet, sweet Parker Parkour any day now, thus becoming one step closer to being an amazing new superhero.

"Why is that you Tony Stark, aka, Iron Man? What? You're here to congratulate me on my feats of speed and ability? Why, it was nothing really? Just me, my sweat, tears and radioactive spider-blood doing what we have to in order to make sure we're at the nearest scene of the crime!"

Okay, so maybe it wasn't a good idea to be fantasizing about how everyone was going to love you the second you stepped out to be a superhero while you were busy training and exercising. Not only was it a bad idea to get your hopes too high given that you were probably not gonna explode onto the scene and become the next Iron Man but... you know, it was probably a bad idea to not keep your eye on the obstacles in front of you.

"Oh what's this? My adoring public? Liz Allen huh? I'm sorry dear, but when I put on the mask I made a solemn oath that I wouldn't use my fame as the... whatever I'm going to name myself, to get chicks... but you should totally date that guy Peter Parker. I hear he got abs all of a sudden. Like, really good ones."

Plus you were kind of talking to yourself too much... granted you already did that a lot in your head anyway, it just helped you organize your thoughts and keep your head straight when it came to thinking things over. However you were literally talking out loud to yourself in the middle of nowhere. Which, granted, might be considered fine enough on its own.

"Flash Thompson huh? I mean, I guess I can give you my autograph. I am a magnanimous superhero who doesn't hold grudges after all!"

Plus voicing out your fantasies of what a superhero life would look like was a little bit creepy, you weren't going to lie. Like, really, really-

***Slip***

Oh look at that, you were distracted and you ended up completely flubbing the landing on one of the obstacles.

Now you were on the ground wincing because you'd crashed right onto your back.

...

Okay ow that actually really, really hurt.

"Note to self... the Spectacular Araneaean shouldn't talk to himself by himself... ow..."

On the plus side at least you were getting used to your own amazing reflexes and grace.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"Couldn't even begin to imagine it Aunt May." Honestly, it wasn't entirely a lie. Even now you were still kind of... well, completely blown away by this entire spider thing. Under a week ago you didn't have any powers period and now you were pretty ducking from abandoned property to abandoned property, doing things that people just shouldn't be able to do and... well, doing so without a care in the world. It was mind-blowing and amazing and... well, you still hadn't wrapped your head around it. In a sense you still couldn't even begin to imagine it...

Heck, what Tony Stark felt at this very moment or what Steve Rogers felt all the way back then was even more of a mystery to you.

"I bet." Aunt May smiled though, for a moment, you see a slight frown. "It is something to be very excited about... I just hope people don't end up... well, too excited." You blinked at that as Aunt May spoke, causing you to tilt your head to the side.

"What do you mean, Aunt May?"

"Well Peter... goodness, how do I put this into words..." The older woman rapped her fingers against the wooden counter as she took a moment to think. "When I was growing up Peter, and when your Uncle Ben was growing up, all the young boys wanted to be like Steve Rogers, like I said. So... a lot of them signed up to join the Army. Ben wasn't old enough to sign up when Vietnam was still going on, thank God, but a lot of young men were. When Desert Shield rolled around Ben enlisted to join up and do his part and, sure enough, when he was training to be part of the army the spirit of Captain America was still strong there, still urging young men to go forward and do what they could. They did and... well, those were some very stressful months for me, Peter." You winced a little; you could imagine that Aunt May must've been a nervous wreck when Uncle Ben would've left to fight.

"Not everyone is Steve Rogers, Peter. Not everyone is Tony Stark... but their examples can lead to a lot of very enthusiastic young people putting themselves into very dangerous situations." May smiled a bit as she looked at you. "Ben says I can be a bit of a worry-wart, and that's true, I can be. However, I think growing up in the times that I did that I have plenty to worry over. I knew a lot of brave, kind young men who went off to do their part inspired by great men. Not all of them were as lucky as Ben was, as grateful as I am that Ben came back alive and well. Mrs. Thompson's oldest boy, Eugene... well, he's the very type of young man that I knew back in those days. Maybe a little rough around the edges but... well, you know. Proud, brash, headstrong but enough good deep down to want to live up to someone like Cap." May's fingers wrung around the yarn she'd been holding before she looked at you. A look of relief comes over her face as she does so, offering you a kindly smile as she pats you on the shoulder.

"I don't worry about you so much Peter; you're a smart boy and you'll put that mind of yours to good use one of these days. I do worry for the other mothers I know around the neighborhood though."

"That does sound like a possibility..." Well now this just got really, really awkward. Here you were getting ready to be a superhero and here was Aunt May worried about people who might take Tony Stark's example to heart and go off and try to be just that. It felt a little weird dancing around that but... well, you could at least partially put her mind at ease." "Look on the bright side though, Aunt May. It might not be as bad with Iron Man!" You scratch the back of your head sheepishly as you think it over. "I mean with Captain America he was actually in the army, something most everyone could join in theory. Tony Stark... he's kind of something else in a way. Not many people can follow his path." You watch as May's lips quirk up into a grin as you say this, an amused chortle escaping them as the older woman waved it off a bit.

"I suppose that's true. Eugene might be bright enough to go to Midtown but he certainly isn't going to be making any robot suits anytime soon." You and Aunt May laughed at the idea, though your mind couldn't help but ping you.

'Probably isn't going to be bit by some weird Spider and get powers from it anytime soon either.' You can't help but grip the spot on your hand where the Spider had bitten you, rubbing it as some phantom pain shot through you momentarily.

"Well thank you for the reassurance Peter. I suppose we'll see in good time won't we?" You nodded at that, a small put in your stomach forming as Aunt May looked back out to her car. "Now Peter, dear, I can quickly lock up the shop so I can give you a ride back home. I won't need you for the rest of the day, so-"

"Aunt May, it's fall and cold. I think I'll be able to handle slowly walking back home. Even brought my inhaler!" You pulled your inhaler out of your pocket, unused for days now, but still very much full. Aunt May fixed you with that furrowed brow again. "Aunt May please, I know you want me to rest but I'm alright. I think I can handle a quick walk back home. You have a business to run." She still fixes you with that skeptical look... but in the end May just sighed.

"Do you have your cell phone on you?"

"Yes and I promise I'll call you if I need you to drive me the rest of the way, Aunt May." You already cut off her point causing the woman to looked at you, amused but worried, as she reaches over to gently pat you on the shoulder.

"Be sure you do Peter. Now you take care okay?" You smile and give a wave goodbye to your Aunt, walking calmly out of her store and getting some distance from it before breaking into a light jog. The conversation rang in your head still and... well, it reminded you of something else you swore you were going to handle today. Something that was dearly important for you to get a handle on if you were going to maintain this whole superhero thing.

Something you couldn't let slip lest you end up really making May and Ben worry sick...

  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**

You had to study Chemistry!

...

Okay so maybe it wasn't quite as out there as the other ways you'd been practicing or studying these past few days but you weren't kidding about how important it was. You were pretty sharp and school had generally been pretty easy for you; granted it was easiest in the science subjects because that's what you really enjoyed studying and learning about. Your other subjects did well enough in but even you had to admit you just kind of coasted off of your natural brains for things like literature or history.

Aunt May and Uncle Ben knew how much you loved science and how hard you studied for it. If your grades ever started slipping because of this whole superhero thing then they might start wondering what you were getting up to...

There were more practical concerns too, you'd admit. You'd had these ideas kind of running through your head for stuff involving all this superhero business. Little ideas for little gizmos and what not, things that could make being a superhero easier for you. You'd always enjoyed tinkering with things, working on little improvements to your laptop or to this or that odd thing in the house... but you had some nifty little ideas in mind for gadgets.

Like Batman.

Or well maybe not like Batman, after all Bruce Wayne was loaded. Discount Batman... with Spider powers.

That sounded about right.

So if you wanted to invent things on a budget that wouldn't be too hard to make you needed to keep your know-how up and keep studying. It was with that thought that you smiled and dove back into your dad's notes... it was clear that some of them were copied from a second-hand source, likely your mom, but still these notes were really informative compared to your own textbooks.

With this knowledge passed down the Parker line for... a generation, you would be the science-y-est superhero around!

...

Well maybe second science-y-est because Iron Man's entire thing was based around Tony Stark's ingenuity.

Still you'd take second place!

...

Maybe you should get back to actually studying instead of fantasizing.


	4. Preparations Part 3 of 6

"Hand me the lug wrench Peter and keep a close eye on what I'm doing here. You're always gonna wanna be careful with the fastenings on these. Try to force it too much and you'll cause more wear and tear and break down the bits. You'll want to do it just right if you want the bits and bobs to last you a good long while."  
  
"Right Uncle Ben."  
  
You quickly grab the plus sign shaped wrench out of Ben's toolbox to hand over to him, kneeling down and watching the man work as he had the family car lifted up off the ground by a few jacks so that he could work on the underside of it. Uncle Ben had been complaining the past few days about how the old girl was running and, well, given how your own interests were shaking up, you decided to jump in and take a few lessons from your Uncle on working machine bits.  
  
"Good man."  
  
There was just a comfortable silence as you watched Uncle Ben work on the car, the other parked outside to give him more space to work in the garage. You'd learned a lot from Uncle Ben about maintaining tools and working on small machine bits as Ben usually was the go-to man for fixing things around the house whenever something broke or needed repairs. Watching the man at work on anything, from a light fixture, to a shower head to even something as big and complex as the two cars he and Aunt May owned... well, it was pretty neat. Ben might've said that he wasn't as smart as you or your dad but the man sure did now his way around some tools.  
  
"Hmmm... Peter do me a quick favor; hand me a socket wrench over there and touch up some of the spots on the inside of the lug wrench. Think the inside might be rusting a bit and it's making this job a bit messy." You nodded as you performed the switch with Uncle Ben, going off to go ahead and clean out and touch up the insides of the wrench. The man was meticulous to be sure; he made sure that his tools were clean, properly maintained and that, should he feel them giving him any trouble, that he'd touch them up so that they'd keep working as designed. If your tools start to break down then everything around you starts to break down.  
  
And if something like say the cars started to break down then he, Aunt May and...  
  
Well...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"Hahaha! Yeah! Running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop in a single bound! This is the way to get around! So long foot traffic and hello Parker-Parkour!" You grinned as you took another mighty leap from one rooftop to the other as you did you best to quickly make your way over to the abandoned train station. With the late week rolling around and people starting to get ready for the weekend traffic on the ground was getting a bit heavy and, when traffic on the ground got heavy folks like you usually ended up having to deal with crowded sidewalks full of pedestrians. For you this would've been a problem in two ways back in the day; either you'd be stuck in traffic with Aunt May or Uncle Ben, or both, with the three of you frustrated over the slow movement of traffic... or you'd on the sidewalk surrounded by people and feeling pinned in by the sheer numbers.  
  
It was all kinds of exhausting either way...  
  
Thankfully the new, superhero Peter Parker didn't have to deal with any of that as you did a front flip from one rooftop to the other. Man, you could just see it now! You running through the Five Boroughs, jumping from roof to roof as you got around New York above the heads of everyone else, swooping down to stop crime before Wall Crawling your way back up onto the roofs of the city! It was genius, it was foolproof, it was...  
  
It was causing you to be distracted while imagining it... which made you miscalculate the distance between the roof you were jumping off of and the roof you were jumping to.  
  
...  
  
One quick splat later and, thankfully, you hadn't fallen back down to the ground. You'd forcibly stuck your hands and feet to the wall and clung like your life depended on it, sticking to the surface and keeping yourself up off the ground level...  
  
Unfortunately you'd pretty much face planted onto the side of the building, a groan escaping your lips as you pulled back and winced; your nose felt bruised.  
  
You were still getting used to the limits of your abilities...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

No, if the cars broke down that'd still be a problem for you. After all, fast as you could run and as far as you could jump you weren't quite capable of traversing huge swaths of the city quickly while also keeping an eye out. At best you could go in a straight line for a ways, double around and all of that would take a few hours...  
  
That wasn't even considering the distance you'd have to go to get to where you wanted to do your thing in the first place. You shuddered at the idea of running all the way over to Manhattan instead of driving there or traveling some other way. Plus all of this was considering the fact that Queens and the buildings that made it up were all still mostly short enough and closely spaced enough for you to make your jumps easily... if you went into Manhattan or other Boroughs like it, you'd be in trouble.  
  
So you still needed tools and other things to help you out. You weren't Superman after all, much as you felt like you were after the new powers you got. You needed a way to work around what limitations you did have. A way to make use of your abilities in a way that'd make things easier for you...  
  
Like how a car made it easier for Aunt May and Uncle Ben do to their work, you guessed.  
  
"How's the wrench coming along Peter?"  
  
"Should be good to go Uncle Ben!" You quickly remarked as you ran back over to your Uncle and handed him the lug wrench again. Sure enough the sounds of Ben easily, or as easily as one could, working away after the quick touch up soon echoed through the garage, causing you to smile. As much as your mother loved chemistry and your dad loved biology, you were definitely more of a tinkerer yourself, like Ben.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Which was what brought you to the basement later that evening, looking over some more of your dad's chemistry notes as you ran a hand through your hair. Even as you did your best to study, even as you tried your hardest to think about only the notes in front of you... well, your mind wandered. You were fast and you were a pretty jumpy little fella these days but... well, you weren't The Flash and you certainly weren't Superman. It still took you time to get around, especially if you were trying to avoid getting people's attentions by jumping across rooftops or taking rougher paths along the abandoned railroad track. One problem for you was constantly popping up and you knew, for a fact, that it'd continue to be a problem.  
  
How the heck were you supposed to get around New York when all you could do was jump and run? At this point the problem was staring you in the face and you couldn't much ignore it. It took time for you to walk over to the abandoned lot and even when you were jumping around like a madman on the rooftops you were still taking a lot of time in order to get to where you were going and then getting back. Until you got your own car you'd also have to depend on Aunt May or Uncle Ben to drive you around if you wanted to get _really_ far out there... and considering your family's income situation that wasn't exactly sounding feasible for the near term future.  
  
There was something else you were slightly worried about as you emptied out a small can of soda and then easily crushed it in your grip. You were strong. Really strong. So strong that knocking people out or down wouldn't be that much of a problem for you. Keeping them down was something else entirely. Now of course you knew the _obvious_ answers. You could break legs, you could break arms, break... well, anything really. Heck, a part of you had even considered the possibility of lightly choking people to make sure they stayed unconscious...  
  
Needless to say the rest of you had immediately looked at that idea and realized what a psychopath it would've made you look like to anyone with eyes to see what you were doing. You really didn't want to have to seriously harm people in order to restrain them but... well, you had a very minor healing ability, the ability to stick to walls, a... Spider Sense, as you started to call it and superhuman physical abilities. You didn't exactly have a lot of options for keeping people down on the ground other than levering your strength in order to beat them down. Which... wasn't great and didn't exactly sound heroic as far as you were concerned.  
  
Uncle Ben's example about managing and maintaining your tools and how to properly use them got you thinking; the answer to this conundrum was obvious. You'd have to make something to help turn that lack into... well, a new tool. A way for you to leverage your love of building and tinkering in order to help fill a gap your powers left...  
  
You groaned in displeasure as you spun around in your computer chair. Question was how? The answer to one was obvious; some kind of grapnel gun. Something that'd let you latch onto buildings you couldn't jump to or otherwise quickly scale that'd let you move around. The other answer was just as clear... a net gun of some kind.  
  
...  
  
Problem was that both of these were kind of expensive and... well, heavy. The material that the net needed to be made out of had to be heavy, same for the grapnel gun's hook, so the mechanisms that fired these things off also had to be big and heavy. The idea of carting around two big old gun-looking things on your hips also wasn't an appealing one for how dangerous it'd make you look. Still... what else was there? What could you do that would neatly solve all of this...  
  
As you spun around in your chair you finally came to a slow, grinding stop, letting out an annoyed grunt as you placed your head in your hand. Looking off to some random corner of the room you notice that, in one particularly dusty corner of the basement, a spider had gone ahead and set up shop. Thankfully this spider was clearly a normal, everyday house spider just looking for an escape from the increasingly cold weather. You watched as the spider skittered around its web, dangling down using a bit of webbing in order to construct a new section of its web and repair another; a fly must've gotten caught in there somewhere not too long ago.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
A web huh?  
  
You stroked your chin as you leaned back in your seat. Well... that would solve the issue of the net. If you could make material as strong and light as a spider web hen the mechanism that'd need to fire it off would be pretty easy to shrink down to something of a more manageable size. What would you even make the webbing out of anyway? Nylon was the first thing that came to your mind, or at least some kind of ionized version of it. Something close to a more plastic Nylon but still behaved like the thin cloth version? After all Nylon could handle a lot of stretching and could maintain its shape under stress. You couldn't just use Nylon but... maybe if you could try to make up something similar in a hurry you could make some kind of rope strand of the stuff. Maybe even just wrap people up in it by spraying it at them like silly string?  
  
Especially if you could make it sticky like a spider's web. If you could do that... and if you could launch it fast enough and send it far enough...  
  
You could even stick it to just about any surface, even bypassing the limitations of your typical grapnel gun. Heck, with this you could even make it a two-in-one solution, combining the net gun and the grapnel gun into a single, miniaturized device that could act as both without you having to switch around or carrying around heavy equipment. A lightweight projectile capable of capturing enemies and letting you swing around more freely...  
  
Was something like this even possible?  
  
...  
  
Well you wouldn't know unless you sketched out some ideas, you guessed. MSPaint don't fail you now...  
  
...  
  
You really needed to buy Photoshop or something if you were going to be making more blueprints for now on but Paint would suffice for now.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Okay so...  
  
It was kind of...  
  
Sort of...  
  
Well it was messy.  
  
Especially the webbing. You couldn't quite stick as close to the Nylon idea as you thought but it served as a good base for what you did finally decide upon. Something sticky but durable that could stretch but would still end up holding its shape. Furthermore the capsules for containing this fluid was roughly designed fine enough, you'd taken some inspiration from how silly string worked which... yeah, if you ever wrote a superhero biography you were never admitting that in a million, billion years.  
  
Silly string launchers... the jokes would never end.  
  
Still... even if the design philosophy was silly and basic...  
  
You think...  
  
Maybe... just maybe...  
  
You could make it work?  
  
That this was workable?  
  
...  
  
You'd definitely need some money though to get the parts together, even if you were probably going to have to work with scrap and common household materials to make this with...  
  
...  
  
Welp.  
  
If Tony Stark could make something with a box of scraps.  
  
And you could make a laptop work even if it was being held together with duct tape and paperclips...  
  
Well, why not, right?  
  
Time to get to work.


	5. Preparations Part 4 of 6

Still, thinking about what you could do now... well, it did raise a few... well, a lot of key questions in your mind.  
  
Because you could do a lot of things you couldn't do before. You could see more than five-feet in front of your face without glasses. You could punch, kick, run, jump, take a hip and a hop, do a hand stand if you needed to, stretch your arms out, jump high and just generally be one heck of a guy physically. To say nothing of the fact that you could do all of this without collapsing into an asthmatic fit that could cost you your life if your inhaler happened to be running out. Not to mention the fact that all this new physical power left you... ah, just left you absolutely _ripped_. Like you were pretty sure that only a few big athletes like Flash had muscles like you did... well, maybe King Kong did too, but Kenny's were generally hidden under that gut of his. You had MASCLES, BIG MACHO! The kind of guns that you were pretty sure you'd need a license for in a State like New York...  
  
And you got this all in less than a day.  
  
From a weird mutant Spider bite...  
  
Yeah, this was going to cause trouble if you didn't put it under wraps fast. You'd been doing your best of course, wearing your baggiest clothes as a substitute for your normal clothes... which at this point could be so ridiculously tight that you might as well have licensed yourself out as an amateur stripper.  
  
God it hurt so bad knowing that you couldn't wear your awesome sweater vests anymore... but some sacrifices needed to be made.  
  
After all, you knew it without even needing to think too hard about it; if people saw you like this it would immediately tip off anyone and everyone that something was up. Sure people grew out of asthma, and sure people could work out to gain muscle mass. Hell, you could even lie and say something like you'd gotten contact lenses for your eyes if you really wanted to go that far...  
  
But there was one simple fact; for Peter Parker, who's family was decidedly working class and who, literally one week ago, was a scrawny asthmatic weakling who absolutely needed his glasses? Yeah, these changes weren't being made this quickly. You weren't suddenly growing out of your asthma in two weeks, you weren't becoming ripped like Flash in two weeks and you certainly weren't getting the money necessary for contact lenses, and a consistent supply of them, in two weeks from Aunt May and Uncle Ben. It certainly didn't help that you'd always pretty much thought that your glasses were fine and that contacts were kind of unnecessary...  
  
Needless to say, you had no doubt that 'everyone' would notice if you just strode out with all these changes at once. At best you'd probably be called out for abusing some kind of steroid... at worse, who knew. Which meant that you needed to go ahead and make do with what you 'could' arrange for in that time. A way to keep your civilian identity consistent with what you could do before. Peter Parker might be stronger and healthier now than he'd ever been but if you didn't want to arose all kinds of suspicion, you knew that you'd have to make it look like you were still normal, scrawny, 'Puny Parker'.  
  
Agh. That was going to be so annoying. You were just gonna have to be the better man about it though.  
  
So with a sigh you pulled out a notepad and pen you borrowed from home and started writing a few things down:  
  
**-Eyesight  
  
-Muscles  
  
-Asthma  
**  
These were the things that immediately came to mind as you needing to cover for... and well, you had forty-two dollars to work with as far as making this all seem like it was no big deal.  
  
'Welp Parker, time to get creative.' You thought to yourself as you pocketed the notepad and pen.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Speaking of tools that were supposed to help you...  
  
The Web Shooters, the name you'd finalized in all of this considering the design of the substance you were getting ready to make. Overall your work on their prototype was pretty simplistic as far as the design went. Two metal bracelets that you'd attach to your wrists which would then be loaded up with the... Webbing, you guess? Anyway, it'd be loaded up with the Webbing, particularly in cartridge form, and would then use a mechanism that, at that very moment, you were busy designing. A pressure system that would unfold out onto your palms whenever you needed the Web Shooters to be fully active, all you'd need to do was apply the right amount of pressure to them in order to trigger the eventual launching mechanism. Considering your super strength it was pretty easy to wire this mechanism to be really tight so that not every crook with a bright idea could set it off for you.  
  
From there the Webbing would go and wham, blam, thank you ma'am, you had yourself a way to web up crooks rather than need to just constantly beat on them till they go unconscious. Heck, if your calculations were right you might even be able to use this for quick moving around like a normal Spider.  
  
Still, there was one part of all of that which stuck out to you like a sore thumb. Something that really ground into your head with the fact that you still hadn't gotten a handle on it...  
  
The eventual launching mechanism.  
  
Eventual being the key word.  
  
You groaned as you stopped fiddling with the Web Shooter, pushing back from your work desk as you started to pace around. The launching mechanism itself. The entire thing that'd make the Shooters work. After all you couldn't just magic these webs out into the world from their canisters, you needed a way to unleash them. That... was easier thought than said and easier said than done, if you were being frank though. It wasn't that you didn't have options, you did... but you really didn't have a perfect option, as far as you were concerned.  
  
Your first option was a simple one; electricity. Use the bits and pieces of a mini-vacuum motor, maybe even building a smaller version of it yourself, and build it into the Web Shooters. The motor would run, it'd spin some mechanisms which would draw the Webbing out from their eventual containers and then faster than you could... well, make whatever sound all of this was going to make, you'd be propelling out the Webbing at a constant speed that you could reasonably rely on.  
  
After all, with electric power you could generally feel certain that the engine would consistently launch the Webbing out at the necessary speed and force that you were looking for. In addition because the mechanism to spin and launch the Webbing was outside of the canisters themselves you could afford to put more Webbing into each charge, effectively giving you more for your buck. It was a great little design...  
  
Except for the big, dumb obvious elephant in the room. A power source. An engine didn't run on wishes and nuts after all. It'd need electricity... and that meant it'd need a battery...  
  
A battery that if you didn't want to hook a big, obvious recharge port into it with the machinery necessary to make that possible, you'd need to buy multiple of for quick replacements. This added so many issues in your mind; first off, on top of paying for the materials to make the Webbing you'd also need to keep stocked on batteries. Furthermore... well, if you ran out of webbing it was easy enough to, with the design you were thinking, replace one cartridge with another. With a battery it'd be finicky and, if you weren't careful and you broke the battery in your fighting or while removing it... well, that was suddenly hazard. It's save you space on webbing still and it would make it easier to keep it consistent but... well, it still had issues.  
  
On the other hand the other option was equally obvious; don't just stuff the cartridges full of Webbing. Fill it with some pressurized air too. Like a spray can or a can of whipped creme or...  
  
Ugh, silly string.  
  
If you pressurized the canisters themselves while inside of their cartridges, you could end up firing the webbing out using simple PSI, the trigger for it being the pressure point on your palm. It'd fire out the webbing though as the cartridges emptied out it might not produced a consistent result, especially if you ran out quickly...  
  
And God weren't you destined to run out quickly if you needed to pressurize these cartridges. You'd be sacrificing ammunition in the form of your Webbing in exchange for the air necessary to launch it out without an outside power source. Plus upgrading these wouldn't be as simple as getting a stronger motor... if you'd want an upgrade, you'd need to seriously work with the mechanisms and construction of the various bits of the Web Shooter. Whole redesigns instead of quick fixes to some component parts...  
  
Still, the biggest, obvious and most simple reason why this had its own upside; no batteries. No paying for extra batteries and no worrying about battery acid on your wrists if a fight went South and some crook ended up breaking your Web Shooters.  
  
So... you needed to come down to a decision. Electricity or PSI. You needed a way to fire this Webbing out and these were your best options at the moment.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"... So dude... like, what else do you think you're going to be able to do?"  
  
...  
  
"Huh?" You glance up from a sketchpad you were working over, a [few little spiders drawn](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ud2q5.png) here and there. It wasn't anything to write home about, God knew you weren't much of the artsy type yourself like Aunt May... but, well, they were designs for a little something you'd been considering. The chest on your costume looked pretty barren and so you'd been thinking about ways to rectify that with... something? There was spray paint in the garage of course but...  
  
Well, as shown by your sketches, you weren't that great at even doodling in a notebook.  
  
Still that didn't keep you from trying to imagine what you could put on there or coming up with little designs, after all. So distracted you'd become with this momentary work that you'd completely zoned out when Ned asked you his question.  
  
"Yeah you know, like, what other kind of powers you gonna get man? I mean, dude, you're already like super buff and can climb on walls and stuff and, dude, that's already like... woah..."  
  
"Use your words Ned." Your heavyset friend gave a quick snort as he threw a pillow at your head; honestly outside of your own family Ned was probably the only person you were comfortable letting your more... sarcastic, quip-y side out around. It helped that the both of you shared a sense of humor when it came to this stuff. Nerd solidarity and all that.  
  
"You know what I mean Pete. Like, not even Captain America could do the stuff you can do! You've only had these powers for, what, like a little over a week now or something?" ... Huh, you had these powers for over a week now. Ned was right... that... that was kind of mind-boggling once you really thought about it. "So who knows what kinds of other crazy powers you'll have after a while!" You see Ned's smile reach from ear to ear, the young man already clearly imagining all the possibilities.  
  
"Oh, speaking of, uh, turns out I can heal pretty fast." Ned's eyes boggled a bit at that.  
  
"For real? Like, what, can you like... grow limbs back or something?"  
  
"What? No!" You answer almost immediately. "... I mean... I dunno. I don't think so? It just seems like I heal fast, like, if I break my hand then it pretty much fixes itself up if I just go ahead and get some sleep. So I don't know if I can like regrow limbs and stuff." You scratched your chin. "How would you even go about testing that?"  
  
"Well... wait, you broke your hand? How?"  
  
...  
  
Immediately your mind flashes back to stupidly testing your strength during your shadow boxing by punching a bit of concrete.  
  
"I'd rather not talk about it."  
  
"Oof, that dumb huh?"  
  
"It was pretty dumb." You readily admitted, Ned getting a good cackle out of the entire thing as you just winced as the phantom pain ran up your arm. You'd never broken a bone before owing to your extreme lack of physical activity as part of growing up, so the experience was... well, it was new if nothing else.  
  
"Still though that's friggin' cool man! You didn't even know you could heal like that and you just found out about it?! Who knows what other kind of cool stuff you still got down there under the hood. Who knows what else you'll get!" You looked down at your hand, licking your lips as you twisted your wrist around to get a good look at the entire thing. Ned was by all means right; who knew what else you had going on in your body right now. Who knew what was happening, how fast it was happening or, heck, if it was happening at all?  
  
"I mean... yeah, I guess. I mean, we could be wrong and this... well, this could be all she wrote, yeah? I mean I haven't felt anything like I did the day I got my powers so... I don't think I'm still changing? Like, it kind of all hit me at once and made me feel awful but, well, ever since then I've felt pretty much fine. Better than fine really, I've felt great." You flex your muscles a bit as if to show this as you get up off your seat and walk around. "So... who knows. This could be it. I could never mutate again and these are all the powers I have. I'm still pretty much waaay beyond human at this point but, this could be it." You see Ned seems slightly disappointed at the idea... and, granted, there is a big part of you that feels the same way.  
  
After all, these powers were the coolest thing that ever happened to you! You could scarcely imagine what it'd be like to have more powers, more abilities, more ways of just... being stronger and stronger, of having more ways of being a hero. Just thinking it sounded amazing.  
  
"Or well, maybe this is just a lull and I'll... get more powers eventually. I'll keep getting strong, I'll keep getting more spider abilities..." You licked your lips slightly as you clenched your fist. "I'll keep... changing. Changing faster than any human being's evolution could possibly go. Changing into something that's just way beyond human. Stronger, faster, hardier... with more abilities that what any normal person could ever possibly hope to get." Something decidedly... not human. A normal human being didn't cling to walls like a spider. A normal human being didn't have a Spider Sense constantly ringing in their head whenever they were in trouble. A normal human being didn't heal so fast that broken bones were barely a concern...  
  
Even if thinking it sounded amazing, you couldn't quite get off that last sticking point. That the changes had been so fast, that they'd come on so strong... that you were so decidedly not a normal person anymore. Beyond that even that it could be possible that you'd go even further away from normal. Maybe next time you mutated it wouldn't be all so neat and orderly... and to some degree, that was a scary thought.  
  
"... You sound kind of worried about it Pete." You turned your head to look over at Ned. You must've accidentally let slip some of those thoughts in the tone of your voice. He'd gone from bombastic and hyped to just kind of looking up at you, waiting to hear you out.

"I mean... maybe?" At this point your own inner uncertainty begins to eek out into your own voice, the veneer of cheerful confident you were keeping up giving way as... well, some of the very real concerns you had building up were finally allowed to be given a voice. "It's all been so sudden. I know you don't know as much about biology as I do Ned-"  
  
"No question about that." You chuckle slightly about your friend's tone though you do hear the click against the roof of his mouth. "Still, even I know enough to know the obvious." You nodded slowly; you figured as much but you were glad that he'd been the one to say it first.  
  
"Yeah... human beings aren't meant to evolve like this. Heck, evolution in its entirety isn't meant to work like this. This isn't a slow steady change or, given the fact that I've gotten Spider powers out of nowhere, even remotely natural to how humanity's developed over the past several hundred thousand years. This is mutation, pure and simple... mutation that came on fast and transformed me in pretty big ways." You can't help but lick your lips at that thought as you look back over to Ned, the young man's eyes sympathetic as he watched you.  
  
"Let's even say that, best case scenario, your radiation joke is wrong and I don't have, like, radioactive spider blood in me right now. Like worst case scenario I'm literally radioactive on some level and that's 'really' going to suck down the line if I ever need to donate an organ or my blood to help my family or anyone. Even in the best case scenario though if it's not radiation that's doing this to me then... what is it? It's something, that much is obvious, people don't just get bit by normal spiders and get powers out of it. Not like a werewolf or anything crazy like that. So... something in that Spider changed me and changed me on a deep down fundamental level. Something I'm completely ignorant about and can't even begin to comprehend. Without data I can't figure out what's been done to me..." You heave a deep sigh as you drop your hands to the side finally, though you end up bringing one up to comb through your hair as you shake your head.  
  
"So... yeah, all of that is a bit of a load on my mind. It gives me a reason to just stop and think... if I don't understand what's going on with me, then how am I supposed to deal with it, right?"  
  
"Yeah. Not like you can go to a hospital either and just tell them. They'll either think you're crazy, turn you over to Oscorp or turn you over to the government. I mean Heck, Tony Stark only built a suit of armor and they're grilling him nonstop in front of the Senate. Pete... you're like a legit superhero! Something that no one's ever seen since Cap..."  
  
"Yeah. A lot of people would probably have a lot of questions." No question. Heck, that informed part of the reason why you were keeping this so quiet, even from Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Who knew what they would think if you told them this. Ned was only okay because... well, Ned was your best friend and a fellow nerd. Heck, of course he'd be happy for you suddenly getting superpowers! That was like the nerd dream right there! Still, looking at him now you could see that concern there, the look you feared you'd see in Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Enough of being a Debbie Downer, it was time to bring some levity back to this conversation.  
  
"Still, that only really means it's something for me to keep an eye on, not something I'm really all that worried about right now." You see Ned blink in surprise, the Korean-American looking at you as you grinned and picked up the pen you were working with, effortlessly fiddling it between your fingers with a show of grace and dexterity that you hadn't possessed at all before getting your powers. "Cause let's face it, right now these powers have been nothing but awesome! Super reflexes-" You idly tucked a foot under the edge of Ned's bed, the young man giving a quick shout of surprise as you lift it, and him, up a foot or so with just your foot, "super strength on top of that.  
  
"Not to mention the whole unflinchingly breaking physics thing." You grin as you walked over to a wall and pretty effortlessly stuck to it, using one hand and your feet to slowly scale up it before turning around to just kind of lean against it, your feet still stuck to it. You watched as Ned grinned and did his best to sneak his hand around for his pillow-  
  
***zzzzrrriiiiiIiiiing...***  
  
"Don't forget your Danger Sense there Pete!" With that Ned quickly threw a pillow at you which you really effortlessly ducked out of the way of with the help of your Spider Sense.  
  
"I didn't forget Ned." You grinned as you quickly grabbed the pillow before it hit the ground, causing Ned's eyes to go wide... and for a moment, everything comes into clarity. You take a deep breath, you wind up and you just chuck the pillow through the air. If this was some kind of crazy action movie, or if you put, like, a whole bunch of quarters in that pillow, you imagine that with the absolute perfect way you threw that pillow that it would've sent Ned flying across the room from impact alone.  
  
Thankfully this wasn't a movie and you weren't a jerk so Ned ended up just getting a face full of several hundred goose feathers in his face, causing him to stumble back a bit from the blow. You give a quick hiss as you worry that maybe you'd thrown it a little too hard but Ned's laughter ends up reassuring you as he pulled the pillow away from his face.  
  
"Jeez Rivera, save that arm for the MLB!"  
  
...  
  
"Ned, Rivera retired, like, five years ago."  
  
"... How did you even know that?"  
  
"What can I say Ned, I live with my Aunt and Uncle in Queens. You're really surprised they're Yankees fans?" Ned raised his hand and opened his mouth.  
  
...  
  
"Point." The young man easily conceded as you both chuckled over it. "Still though, woo, if that was anything other than a pillow I might need a trip to the hospital. You're not kidding when you say you're super strong." You nod awkwardly at that as you scratch at the back of your head.  
  
"Tell me about it. It's why I've been working on a few other... well, tools that I can use to help me out." Ned gave a big fat raspberry as the young man of Korean descent just stared at you incredulously.  
  
"Dude... you got superpowers! What tools could possibly help you out? You don't see guys like Superman or The Flash using tools. That's for guys like Batman who have money but no powers!" Ned commented as... well, you felt a certain urge rise up.  
  
The urge to be a pedant.

...  
  
You knew you had to do it to him.  
  
"Well... actually!" You quickly pick up your glasses, brought along for the sake of keeping up appearances, and rest them on your face... before dramatically taking them off. "Flash and his friction-proof suit, Superman and his Kryptonite-proof suit, Wonder Woman and her lasso and bracers, which is actually kind of similar in purpose to what I'm building, the hawks had maces that could punch through magic, Martian Manhunter had clothes that could shape-shift with him... and let's not forget what happens when-" You quickly jumped up, balancing on the end of Ned's bed as you posed for all you were worth, "[Captain America throws his mighty Shield](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVU4HURKEXs&feature=youtu.be&t=3)!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah. All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield." With that Ned picks up your discarded glasses and, with dramatic flare, removes them from his chubby face. "Besides, ACTUALLY, Flash doesn't really have a special costume anymore. These days the Speed Force protects whatever clothes he's wearing."  
  
"Even so, ACTUALLY, he has a little ring that keeps his costume inside of it still." You countered as you crossed his arms. "Besides is that the only counter-example you have?"  
  
...  
  
"Yes... I must concede; you, Peter Parker, are the superior nerd." You almost pump in your fist in the air... before looking down at Ned who has this huge, crap-eating grin on his face.  
  
"Touche Ned, touche. Even in victory you wound me." The both of you chuckle as you jumped down from your position on the end of his bed to occupy the chair once more. "Back to my point, pretty much every super had at least something that could cover up for weaknesses in their powers. Besides, this isn't some comic book where all the heroes need to be on a level playing field to keep the story interesting. Why have super-powers or gadgets when you can have super-powers and gadgets?"  
  
"Mix the chocolate and the peanut butter." Ned said as you snapped your fingers and pointed at Ned.  
  
"Exactly Ned, exactly! If I can, why shouldn't I right?" Ned nodded in agreement with that as you started to pack up.  
  
"Oh man, you been here that long Pete?" Ned checked his phone for the time; indeed, you'd been here a couple hours already even before this little talk. Not that you wouldn't spend a little longer with Ned usually but-  
  
"Yeah, got a little bit of shopping to do. Need to buy some clothes before I get home." You watch as Ned furrows his brow as he leaned forward in his seat.  
  
"I thought you already had a costume put together?" You nodded at that as you smiled back at him.  
  
"I do, I do... I just don't have a... hm, 'costume' for me." You grabbed at the big old long sleeved shirt you'd worn, the fabric only somewhat loose on you. "This is my last clean shirt until I do laundry tomorrow. Rather not constantly worry about being on the edge of not having 'any' clothes this size for me to wear around." Besides that, you also needed to buy some air for your little project.  
  
"Right... man, who'da thunk getting ripped out of nowhere would be such a problem."  
  
"Yeah, Charles Atlas never talked about that in his get pumped quick comics I bet; the cost to your wardrobe." You and Ned laughed a little, the slightly tanned young man reaching up and clasping your hand in a shake.  
  
"Good luck man... and take care of yourself. Keep an eye out, like you said." Your grin softened a little as you nodded; one last show of concern from your best friend.  
  
"Ned, I promise that if I start turning into a giant spider, you'll be the first guy to know." The both of you laugh at how absolutely ludicrous the idea sounded though, tellingly, you both didn't stop shaking hands for a few seconds. Eventually you parted and, with a promise to check in sometime later this week, you were off to the clothing store.  
  
You were glad you'd told Ned... it was a weight off your mind to have 'someone' to talk to about all this.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

Alright Parker...  
  
Slowly and carefully.  
  
You needed to do this just right.  
  
If you screwed this up then a whole lot of money would go down the drain.  
  
It'd be for nothing.  
  
You'd be nothing, exposed to the world as a fraud and a sham.  
  
You just needed...  
  
To...  
  
THERE!  
  
You grinned as you slipped the false frame into your usual glasses, smiling softly as you picked them up and took a good long look at them. Not a sign of a stretch or a scratch on the rims and, placing them on the bridge of your nose, the news lenses did their job of looking like the real deal while not making you want to hold your head from a painful headache and puke.  
  
You quickly tossed the prescription lenses of your glasses into the trash can, the very bottom of it along with the plastic bags from the clothing store, as you readjusted your frames. They weighed about the same and, with all that work done, you could rest easy as you leaned back in your chair, the comfy, loose clothes you'd bought as part of the trip hanging off of your ripped physique as you decided to take a moment to breath. All in all things were looking up for Peter Parker. You'd done what you'd needed to do and, with a spray of your inhaler, you kept up the charade of still being your old self. With costume stuffed up in your room hidden in-between your mattress and bed frame and now some normal clothes that looked big on your bigger muscles... well, you'd say you had your secret identity and civilian identity covered. So long as you kept up appearances with the asthma which would, thankfully, keep you out of gym class no one would be able to put it all together that something really weird and really big happened to you...  
  
Now for the other big project. You leaned forward as you brought one of the cartridges around, quickly going to work designing both a means to load the future webbing into them and then, in the future, pressurize them with the small airsoft canisters you'd bought form the store. As you thought it was going to be less expensive than a battery but, still, you'd still need to spend a penny on this stuff. Still, it'd be worth it to keep the design of these things relatively simple. The only point of failure now was if the cartridges were broken... and even then the most it would do was make a mess. Not enough air in not big enough of a canister to do much actual damage.  
  
After that you could get to work designing the connection nozzle for the Web Shooters so that they could release the highly pressurized air and then, from there, launch the webbing out using the highly pressurized system. Hopefully the way you'd design it you'd keep too much air from being released all at once.  
  
Still... this was a project for another time. Another place... for right now? Well, now you had to worry about something else. Something far more important...  
  
Something that, if you missed, could have traumatic consequences for not just your life, but for your superhero career...

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Focus up Parker...  
  
Focus...  
  
You needed to get this exactly right.  
  
Everything was depending on this one motion. You just had to get it right and...  
  
Then...  
  
It'd...  
  
Be...  
  
Perfect!  
  
"Goodness, seems we have a little Picasso in our midst!"  
  
You blush a little as you look off to the side, smiling sheepishly as you scratched at the back of your head.  
  
"Hardly Aunt May. Just... you know, getting good at doing a little bit of work here is all. Besides, I think Picasso worked with paintings not, you know, sketches." You looked at the sketchbook in front of you, a bit of 'live art' of an apple sketched onto it following Aunt May's instructions. It wasn't perfect by any means but... well, it was a good start. Aunt May was being her usual encouraging self of course though, patting you on the back to encourage you to keep going...  
  
But thankfully it did seem genuine too.  
  
"Really Peter, you shouldn't be so rough on yourself. You only asked for lessons yesterday and you've already worked so hard at it. Perhaps I'm being a little... excitable."  
  
"A little?" You asked, sounding amused as Aunt May slapped you across the shoulder.  
  
"A lot... but I am glad that you're taking up an interest like this. A boy your age should have some hobbies to help take his mind off things... and needless to say, girls love an artist."  
  
"AUNT MAY!" You blush as your aunt cackles in that way that only May 'Reilly' Parker could, waving your notebook at her as she waved her hand back at you.  
  
"Peter, it's okay if that's the reason why you're doing it. You're getting to be that age and there are worse ways to woo young ladies. Why, I remember back in High School. Ben Parker was a 'big shot' Sophomore when I finally got into the school and... well, he had a bit of a reputation. Tried a little bit of everything to win the ladies over. Early that year he actually joined the Art Club, and-" You groaned as you hid behind your notebook, having heard this story before. It ended with Aunt May slapping Uncle Ben because... well, as enthusiastic as your Uncle had been then, his actual skill with sketching left a lot to be desired and... well, Aunt May hadn't quite appreciated the gesture.  
  
Still... even if you were doing this to flirt with girls, AND YOU WEREN'T... you did have a reason for doing this other than the simple joy of it being a hobby. You looked down at your sketchbook and could see the barest impressions of the earlier sketches you'd done of the Spider Symbol you had in your head...  
  
As fun as the art was... you had an idea. A picture in your mind that you wanted to bring out... and it was for something big...  
  
Or well, something you hoped would be big.  
  
"So I sit down and he starts drawing me, and wouldn't you know it?"  
  
... For now though you'd have to wait until your Aunt stopped reminiscing about High School. You knew from experience that once Aunt May got going with a story that interrupting her wouldn't do much good...  
  
Besides, it was a pretty funny story.


	6. Preparations Part 5 of 6

A cracked open window in the basement allowed the weird smell of the [chemical reaction](https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5025/5703151566_a44cee2ea6_b.jpg) to drift out as you continued to work on the batch of Webbing that would form your first real prototype strand of the stuff. You'd been toying around with small amounts of the Web Fluid formula you'd jury rigged last week, trying to figure out what would actually make your back of the napkin theorizing work out and produce the substance you'd wanted. The progress was...  
  
Well, the progress was actually quite nice, if you were being frank. So far as you worked on the substance and tested it in small doses, you were getting the various qualities in it that you were looking for. It was sticky and durable but stretchy and able to hold it's shape under various types of pressure... when starting small in ball forms. As you stretched out the substance more and more it was clear that while you'd managed to make a Nylon-esque compound that was capable of stretching and staying strong that it had its limits before it'd start giving under that stress. Not great but not entirely unexpected either, if you were being honest.  
  
After all, everything had its limitations. No matter how strong it was or how much it could stretch and bend eventually even the strongest molecular bonds could break under the right circumstances... or the wrong circumstances, depending on how you looked at it. Two things that were breaking this thing's bonds that you noticed... first off, pressure and pull. Duh; if you pulled and stretched hard enough on the substance then no matter how strong it could be it would rip and tear eventually. That was just common sense as far as you were concerned. An unforeseen side effect, however, was what else could make the bonds diminish... open air. Once you put the substance out into the open air it would slowly but surely degrade over time. It'd start slow at first and, honestly, wouldn't even be that noticeable for an hour or so, maybe two. But at the end of those two hours you could bet that the stuff would start to critically fail at multiple levels, eventually disintegrating entirely if it wasn't torn apart by the elements or who knew what.  
  
That... could be a problem. It meant that there was a hard and fast limit to how long you could expect your Webbing to last. If you needed to use it to hide out somewhere while perching or... well, if you just needed to hold a bad guy for a long time, then you'd have to be keenly aware of the time. Not to mention what that meant for storage; you couldn't just indefinitely store this stuff, throw it off to the side and expect it to be raring and ready to go. It'd degrade over time just due to its very nature. So not great...  
  
On the other hand, well, if the police wanted to get a bad guy down or get him unstuck from the webbing it'd probably be nice for it to degrade like that after a couple hours, right? So not really a bad thing all told.  
  
Besides, you had bigger fish to fry at the moment... you kind of came up on a bit of a problem... well, not a problem but rather a bit of a conundrum. You'd been testing multiple mixtures of the Webbing, trying your best to come up with a good, solid formula that would suit your needs. As things stood you'd narrowed it down to two possible subjects whose mixtures you'd use as part of the final Webbing process. On the other hand, there was what you called the 'Salty Spitoon' Webbing. It was thicker, it was strong and more durable and man did you have a hard time getting it unstuck from whatever surface you put it to. The Salty Spitoon Webbing was certainly tough enough to live up to its namesake; you think that if you managed to spray down street thugs in enough of the stuff that there was no way they'd be able to wriggle out. Which was great, given that you wouldn't have to worry about them getting away before the cops showed.  
  
Heck, bonus, it probably meant that you'd be able to more consistently use it for... well, what you were planning to eventually call 'Web Swinging', if the idea in your head would match the reality. If things got touch or if it was put under stress you really wouldn't have to worry about it too, too much. The other Webbing formula could support your weight and then some too but it was easier to shear and cut and had less strength to it...  
  
The problem was that this Webbing was indeed quite thick... you'd already tested putting some small amount of of it into a cartridge and you could already tell that you'd be hard pressed to fit a lot of the Webbing in there. It'd definitely hit your ammo capacity for sure.  
  
Then there was 'Weenie Hut Jr.'s' Webbing.  
  
So sue you, you giggled at the names and decided to use them as a vague prototype names.  
  
Anyway, less thick, less strong and if introduced to a lot of stress it was bound to give eventually. It could still probably hold bad guys down... but it was definitely made for that purpose. If you coated them in enough of the stuff, or if you made sure they were sufficiently down, then yeah, this Webbing would hold them and make sure they stayed down. Which was good... but it just wasn't as good at doing it as the other Webbing.  
  
However, the big plus came just from its nature; it wasn't as thick and it was easier to pack around. You tried putting some of it into a cartridge and it just kept on going in. You could probably fit more of this stuff into the Web Cartridge than you could of the other stuff by a ways. It wouldn't be as strong sure but hey it'd be plentiful, right?  
  
So that led you to a conundrum...  
  
Tastes great?  
  
Or less filling?

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Alright... and... one... last...  
  
Turn.  
  
You grinned as you wiped the sweat off your brow, a low chuckle erupting from your chest as you raised the device up to eye level. After hours upon hours of work, it was finally done. The [Web Shooters Mk. I.](https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2-Webshooters.jpg) You quickly took the bracelet and slapped it open, a slight hinge joint allowing for the back of the device, which housed none of the compartments, to become detached from the front of it. You wrapped it around your wrist, being careful to place the firing mechanism so that it'd be positioned at just the right degree so that it'd glide easily over your hand and end with the pressure point in your palm, before snapping the whole thing shut around your wrist.  
  
Perfect, it fit perfectly. You'd probably have to make adjustments to it as your body continued to fill out and grow as your puberty went on but minor adjustments like that really didn't worry you at the moment. Right now what you were thinking of was putting this boy through his paces...  
  
Which meant a test. You pulled up a cartridge, a test dummy that you'd made for just this occasion, and then loaded it up into the Web Shooter. You then turned to the other end of the basement, your eyes narrowed as you imagined some creep at the other end of the basement. For dramatic flair you took off your glasses and, for added excitement, slipped on your costume's mask, goggles glimmering in the lights cast by the light bulbs as you glared at your invisible opponent.  
  
"Alright evil doer... taste the Spider's Webbing!" You brought up your hand, aimed and then pressed down on the pressure point...  
  
 **[*psssssssssssssssss*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnao4vmMtpk)**  
  
At a rather quick pace a jet of silly string fired out from the Web Shooter and struck the other side of the basement. You immediately cut off the pressure and watched, a grin on your face as the string of... silly? Whatever, it stayed stuck between your Shooter and the wall. The nozzle mechanism you'd made didn't immediately cut it off once the pressure was off. Good, real good.  
  
...  
  
Okay yes, you'd tested it with silly string of all things but you needed a substitute while you were actually working on the Webbing formula and this was the best you could do for now. You grinned and pumped your fist as you took off your mask, looking down at the Web Shooter. It... might take a little bug testing to make sure that everything was in working order but... well, it was done.  
  
You'd nailed your design and now it was ready and raring to go...  
  
Provided you made another one for your other wrist.  
  
You looked down at your bare wrist and chuckled, shaking it out.  
  
That wouldn't take long though.  
  
Wouldn't take long at all now that you'd gotten the work done.  
  
Score one for Peter Parker.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

You yawn a bit as you rubbed at your eyes, moving through your house as you went to go put Uncle Ben's tools back. You'd been at it for hours now, working on the Web Shooters and making sure they were finely tuned. Still, while work was fun and all... or well as fun as going at it for hours on end twisting around every last bit and welding things into place could be...  
  
Which, you know, surprisingly fun all things considered!  
  
It would be nice to just put Ben's tools back and then rest for a bit. Or, knowing you, maybe you'd get to work on some other little project you had in mind. You hadn't gotten the Web Fluid recipe down pat quite yet so finishing up the Prototype there might be a good idea. After all, you hadn't even really decided on a few key aspects and a lot of the Webbing's design was down to just a few basic theories. You'd need to fiddle around with your mom's old chemistry set before you really settled down on a final product...  
  
Having successfully chased the phantom delight of sleep away from your mind by thinking of the work you still had yet to do you gave a quick sigh and turned into the garage... only to stop dead in your tracks. Oh man, had you been working on the Web Shooters for that long that Uncle Ben's workday ended? Okay, maybe a dumb question; after all, that's the only way the man was right in front of you at that moment, working away at the undercarriage of one of the family cars as he grunted a bit. You winced as the work stopped at the sound of the opening door, the rattling of tools hitting the concrete echoing in the garage.  
  
"Pete, May? Is that one of you?" You sigh, figuring you were found out... but still intent on getting Ben's tools back on his table. You walked over, casually, to the table, doing your best to ensure that the tools in your arms didn't rattle and roll as you carried them.  
  
"Uh it's me Uncle Ben. Sorry, I didn't realize it was so late that you'd be back from work!" You started the process of putting each of Ben's tools back onto their respective spots on the walls and the table, a chuckle heard from underneath the car as Ben, presumably, got back to work.  
  
"Hahaha, been spending a lot of time in the basement these past couple days Pete. Busy frittering away some time on your laptop?"  
  
"Uh, I mean, no I'm not surfing the web or-"  
  
"I mean 'on' your laptop, Peter. I noticed a couple tools were gone so I figured you borrowed them to fix up the old girl again." Oh thank God that you had that ready made excuse. That old hunk of junk was now good for another thing other than surfing the web and doing homework.  
  
"Uh, yeah actually, that's what I was doing. Been a bit busy; I think I might need some more parts for it though, some of the ones I've had are starting to go." Ben hummed from underneath the vehicle as he continued working away at it.  
  
"Well May and I will keep giving you your allowance Pete. If you need your laptop for school and it's not working May and I can see about helping you out a little more-"  
  
"Oh don't worry about that Ben, it's nothing like that. Besides, not like I've got much schoolwork to do right now anyway." You chuckle as you put the last of Ben's tools back.  
  
"Hah, I suppose not. Can't give you homework if you're not in school to get it..." Ben grumbled to himself as you presume he stroked his chin. "Or maybe they can what with that there email they can send these days."  
  
You shudder at the idea of Midtown High sending you makeup homework over an email. Thankfully the nature of this emergency break seemed to be precluding that; it'd probably look pretty bad if a bunch of Freshmen students nearly got hurt in an attack at a field trip spot and, while they were supposed to be resting to overcome the trauma, Midtown sent them busy work. Score one for you, meant you had more time to work on all this superhero stuff.  
  
"Well they haven't sent me an email so far... and when I can get the old girl to work to check in they still haven't." You quickly add as you turn to face Ben, crossing your arms. "So anyway, what about you Uncle Ben? Why you working on the car rather than taking a load off and reading the paper?" Ben chuckled from his spot underneath the car, the old man waving his hand from underneath it as he paused his work.  
  
"Please Peter. I might be an old man by your standards but I've still got some kick in me. I don't need to sit in a recliner to rest my bones after a day's work." You grin a little bit at the jovial tone in Ben's voice as he continued to work at the underside of the car. "Besides, this old girl's been grinding a lot recently so I'm trying to figure out what's wrong down here." You blinked at that, adjusting your now fake glasses as you walked over and squatted down, trying to get a look underneath the raised car.  
  
"I'm guessing you've already checked for pebbles in the brake pads?" Another low chuckle escaped Ben's throat as you can assume he nodded from the way his body shifted.  
  
"Yeah checked that first actually just to be sure it wasn't something more serious. Checked the wheel bearings too just to make sure it wasn't them before diving under here too. All four of the tires are still fine and dandy so it's not that either, so now I'm gonna go ahead and check under here real quick. Make sure it isn't anything with the drive shaft or anything too important. If it's nothing down here then I'll go ahead and make sure that the alternator isn't going bad."  
  
"Oof, that'd be a little pricey if it was."  
  
"A little but nothing as bad as the other things I'm checkin'. Heck, I'd consider it a lucky break if it was just the alternator on this thing... well, no." You can just imagine Uncle Ben scratching at his head as he reconsidered his thoughts. "Lucky break would've been if it was just a pebble like you said. The alternator would be a semi-lucky break, I guess." You nodded, understanding Ben's point as the man slid around a bit to check another section of the vehicle.  
  
"So Pete, what've you been up to lately? Aside from fixing that old brick you got down there, that is."

Uh, uh... okay, you just needed to be able to think for a moment. Give yourself enough time to come up with something that'd be... mostly true, you really didn't want to outright lie to Uncle Ben, but vague enough that it would let you get away from potential superhero shenanigans. Thankfully the old Parker wits didn't fail you and, looking over to the front hood of the car, an idea sparked in your head.  
  
"Uh... hey Uncle Ben, what if I checked the alternator while you worked under the car? I mean, I can pop the hood real quick to check it over and see if it's alright or not. That way you don't have to do extra work and, if it is the alternator, you can get out from under the car and think about replacing it?" You offered casually as you looked down at your Uncle's exposed body, the man pausing his work as you heard a slight hum of thought echo from underneath the car.  
  
"You sure Pete? I know you're a smart kid but the cars never really seemed to interest you all that much." You shrugged; in truth you were probably better at handling electronics than something like a car, years of working on your laptop and whatever little devices Aunt May and Uncle Ben could afford to buy you, or that you could find and fix, attuning your skill set to small little handheld things like your phone. Still, by that same measurement, years of helping Uncle Ben out in the garage at least gave you a passing familiarity with the workings of a vehicle. Maybe you could spot if something was actually wrong with the alternator if you took a peek.  
  
If not, well, you could just say you didn't know or didn't see anything and then let Uncle Ben handle it. No harm no foul and it'd buy you enough time to think of a good sideline topic.  
  
"Come on Uncle Ben, I'd like to think I've watched you work over this old girl long enough to tell if the car had a problem as simple as a worn out alternator." You offered with a slight chuckle, one that earned a deep laugh from your Uncle as he gave you a thumbs up from beneath the car.  
  
"You know what son, fair enough. Have at it Pete; if you don't think you see anything or you can't tell just say so and I'll have a look once I'm up there." You resisted the urge to heave a sigh of relief as you quickly went about popping the front hood of the car. All the while your mind raced with possibilities over what exactly to say you were up to. He already knew you were spending a lot of time in the basement but Uncle Ben thought you were up to something more mundane than... you know, setting up your superhero identity and abilities. Really, what you'd like is if this could help you in multiple ways; you didn't just want to obfuscate away from the basement, you really would've liked it if you could kill two birds with one stone, find a way to give yourself an out for going out on patrols as this... spider hero you were coming up with that would still give Aunt May and Uncle Ben a reason to think you were going to be alright...  
  
As you raised the front hood of the car you were treated to the sight of a well cared for and well maintained engine. Some parts were certainly more dirty than others, covered in some oil here and there and with some rust building up in a few places, the grime and toil of a car engine building up over the years. Still, it was beyond clear that Uncle Ben had put more than his fair share of elbow grease into this car to make sure that it'd run for as long as possible without having to worry about it. So in all honesty you weren't expecting to find a problem with the alternator; with how much care Ben took of this car it was hard to imagine he'd ever miss something like that.  
  
Still, you said you'd check and, hey, wouldn't be much of a superhero if you just half-assed checking this over just because, right? As you started to move around so that you could more easily inspect the alternator, the idea finally hit your brain as you grinned down, barely seeing your uncle on the underside of the car through the various gaps in the bottom of the carriage.  
  
"I've actually been hanging out with Ned a lot too over the weeks off. You know, go over to his house, watch some... Netflix." Yes, Netflix. Not anything illegal or pirated. Something totally legal. "Maybe play some games or build some Lego. You know... just us hanging out." Not talking about being a superhero or how awesome your powers were. Nope. Definitely none of that either. Uncle Ben chuckled from his spot as he glanced your way.  
  
"Ned huh? Good to hear you're still such good friends with him Peter. He seemed like a polite kid, good sort." You nodded at that as Ben turned back to his work. "It's been a while since you've brought him over though."  
  
"Y-Yeah... it's just because, you know-"  
  
"Not much for a couple of strapping young men like yourself to do around here, eh?" You blushed at that but... yeah, nodded. That was the big reason you and Ned had agreed to mostly hang out over at his house. "Well I can't say I blame you Peter. Back in my day that was the idea too... though back in my day it was more that you still didn't have much to do back at your own house so going out and hanging out was your best option. Didn't have none of these nifty little things when I was a kid. We had TV and radio sure but... well, it wasn't much of an activity for friends to do, ya know?"  
  
"I hear ya." While you and Ned did often sit around like a couple potatoes, it wasn't just to watch cable. You guys watched anime or movies or whatever when they were available, which was a little more involved than just sitting around watching whatever was on TV.  
  
"These days you all have Netflix thing and your internet on the computers and the... er..."  
  
"The Nintendos, Uncle Ben?" You asked with a wry grin, the memory of that flub playing in your mind with perfect clarity. It was the only time you think you'd ever seen Uncle Ben blush in his entire life.  
  
"Yes, those." Uncle Ben coughed into his fist as he kept on working. "I know the usual shtick is for me to talk about going outside and all but... well, Pete you and I know better at this point." You cough a bit into your fist as a dramatic show before nodding. Right, asthmatic. "Besides, given that what I did most often was just drive around with some buddies listening to our favorite songs on the 8-Track and... well, not doing much else productive, I don't think it's right for folks like me to judge what you all do with your time. God knows we wasted ours plenty." You smile a little at Ben's commentary, nodding as you continued looking over the alternator.  
  
"... Still, it is a shame that you can't bring your friend over here to enjoy that kind of thing Pete." You blink a bit as you look down through the engine block to see Uncle Ben. "You all are good kids and you don't get up to trouble so I don't doubt that if you had something to do around here that you'd come by and we could meet your friend a little more often. You don't though so... if you want to actually have fun with your friends you have to go out. May and I can't always be around to drive you out there either so God knows you have to go out there and walk with your asthma. Plus I know going to Midtown there's plenty of kids who do have those kinds of things in their home." Ben smacks his lips a little bit as he kept working on the car. "Aaah... I dunno what I'm trying to say exactly... if you ever need a lift Pete just ask, alright?"  
  
...  
  
It honestly kind of sounded like Ben was... apologizing?  
  
...  
  
Oh...  
  
Oh! Hey!  
  
You finally noticed it out of the corner of your eye while you were looking the alternator over. Sure enough the thing was old and, while that alone might not have been enough reason to pin the grinding problem on it, the obvious wear and tear at some of the connectors and with the actual mechanisms did. Even if this wasn't the direct cause of the problem it was probably going to start causing problems and soon.

"... I think I get what you're saying Uncle Ben." You nodded slightly as you looked down between the engine block at the older man, smiling slightly as you could just barely tell he'd glanced up your way. "Thanks... I will." A low chuckle echoes from the underside of the vehicle.  
  
"You're a good kid Pete." You blush a little, genuinely a little embarrassed at the tone in Ben's voice as he spoke. You eventually end up coughing into your fist; you did have other work you wanted to do today concerning the Webbing and, well, you think you'd found the source of the car's troubles.  
  
"Uncle Ben, I do think it's the alternator. It's got a lot of obvious wear and tear on it, especially around where it actually fits into the rest of the engine block. I think you might need to go ahead and replace it." You hear Uncle Ben stop his work on the underside of the car as the man slowly but surely scoots out, a small board on wheels underneath him allowing him to easily scoot out. The older man stood up and walked over to stand beside you, blinking a bit as he leaned in to take a look at the alternator himself.  
  
"Well would you look at that, it is." You listen to Uncle Ben's hoarse laugh as he clapped you on the shoulder a couple times. You fake being knocked around by your uncle's meaty hands, best to keep up appearances even if you could easily take the hits by now, as Ben grinned down at you. "Well you just saved me a whole lot of time there Peter. Thank you, kid."  
  
"It's no problem Uncle Ben, happy to help." You chirp as Ben nods, letting you take a few steps away from the car as he closed the hood.  
  
"Well you can go ahead and run along then Pete. I'm going to head out to buy a replacement alternator so I can get to work. No need to leave a problem like this sitting when I can get to work on it as soon as possible." You nodded in agreement with him, Ben sliding one of the sets of car keys off of the hook in the garage. "Tell May that I'll have the other car back in a jiffy if she needs to run any errands herself. Until I replace that alternator I'd rather not have anyone drive this car."  
  
"I'll be sure to tell her, Uncle Ben."  
  
"Thank ya Pete. Now run along; you've wasted enough time with an old man like myself." You both laugh as Ben quickly loads up into the other car while you start heading back for the basement. You thought about a lot of what Uncle Ben said and about his offer to you as far as getting around... you really were lucky to have family like this having your back.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


Not just that, you were really lucky to have a family that passed on the kind of brains that made solving your little Webbing problem a cinch. You'd decided quickly enough that you really wanted to make sure that you kept the bag guys down when you webbed them up. If you had to spend a lot of webbing to get the same result anyway then, hey, not much point in having the extra space for more Webbing by making it thinner in the first place, right? So you thickened the formula and made it a lot stronger, a lot tougher. The strands were thicker and, when you used the spinneret you'd attached to the Web Shooter to spin them...  
  
Well it was still pretty easy for you to snap your own webs considering your not inconsiderable strength. At least that was the case with a single strand. When you started putting more and more together, well, it got progressively harder. For a normal person this stuff would be damn difficult to break out of without a knife or someone else's help... or sheer, dumb luck. Still, that was a good thing as far as you were concerned! This just meant that it'd be easy for you to web up goons and leave them without having to worry about them getting away. A weight off your mind since you were going to do this whole vigilante thing.  
  
Man...  
  
You were really close to being ready now! You mean, you were probably ready with just your powers but... gosh, you'd gotten so much else lined up. You got your first gadget done and you were getting ready to finish up the material that gadget would launch, you'd finished a costume, you'd found a hiding spot and you'd even done some rudimentary training. You were... you were ready and raring to go.  
  
Almost.  
  
Still a few finishing touches...  
  
But to think. Nearly two weeks ago now you'd gotten your powers and now, here you were, ready to go out into the world to be... well, to be a superhero of all things. To fight crimes. About the only thing you hadn't come up with yet was a name and... well, you were still working on that. You were getting pretty close to an idea you liked but...  
  
Well, you could focus on that later. For now it was time to take this basic Webbing formula and actually start producing it. Once it was done... man.  
  
Then you were just...  
  
Oh this was going to be sooo cool!


	7. Preparations Part 6 of 6

Alright Pete... moment of truth. You'd snuck your costume down to the garage while Uncle Ben and Aunt May were out. You had business to get to today, after all. It was important business to, the kind that...  
  
Okay this joke where you overly dramatized a perfectly average thing you were doing was getting stale. Time to move onto some new material Parker, especially if you want to be able to quip at criminals like a real superhero.  
  
So uh, where were you...  
  
Right!  
  
Painting a symbol on your costume! The chest of the costume had been looking pretty barren because... well, it was a sweatshirt. Granted it was a super cool red and blue sweatshirt/hoodie but, still, it was a normal article of clothing. That meant no brands on it, thank God; hey, if people were gonna have their ads on your butt they were gonna pay for them to be there...  
  
Wow that thought made you feel kind of sad and pathetic all by itself. You could already see it; you going through the city with like a Pepsi logo stamped on your butt. Thanks but no thanks...  
  
Anyway!  
  
That meant that the sweatshirt was completely barren. Which was good... but it also made it look less like you were a superhero and more like you were just some incredibly helpful bum fresh out of the Goodwill...  
  
Which you know, _fair,_ but you'd like it if you had a little more gravitas! So a symbol on the chest was needed. You had your paint, you had your costume and now... well, you had the stencil you'd designed, thanks to the lessons Aunt May gave you on sketching it was easy enough to make a quick drawing on a piece of paper and cut it out so that you could just spray-paint the symbol on your chest.  
  
The hard part was deciding on the symbol itself and the colors...

…

Alright Peter, come on. It's not like construction paper grew on trees. Aunt May didn't exactly use these kinds of things for her arts and crafts; the woman was more into drawing and making yarn crafts than anything like what you were trying to do here. So she didn't usually bring a lot of this home... this was your... last change. You winced as you looked over at your first take on the attempt. It... wasn't pretty, definitely. No hideous but, Ye God, the legs just curved in ways that looked nothing like what you had originally imagined! It wasn't what you wanted this symbol to be...  
  
So you were trying again. One more time to get it right. You were so close to done too! You were coming up on the last couple lines of the body. You just had to get it around the spinneret... and then... curve it... just...  
  
So!  
  
You allowed a deep sigh of relief to escape your chest as you wiped your forehead, grinning at the results of your work. It's taken a bit but you'd managed to do it; this symbol even looked pretty damn good! Sure, up close you could notice a few spots where you'd gotten the lines a little wonky but, hey, from a far enough distance it looked exactly like how you wanted it to. You quickly produced a knife from Ben's garage and started to, very carefully, cut out the symbol. You folded the construction paper in half, a bit of a task to do accurately, so that you could properly cut the design out and leave a nice, neat little stencil for you to use. Here you were less worried; you just didn't have the hands of a skilled artist or the coordination for that specific kind of work... but with your Spider powers? Yeah, wielding a knife was a lot easier in your opinion, dancing it on the lines of the symbol as you slowly but surely carved it out.  
  
In good time you finished, hitting the end of your line and feeling the paper give slightly. With a grin and a flourish the carved out chunk of the Spider symbol fell from the construction paper, leaving only a hole of its shape behind. With spray paint you could just quickly spray this design onto the chest of your costume and then bam! You had a full and ready costume, logo and everything...  
  
And man, this was a pretty sweet logo if you did say so yourself! There was just one last thing you had to think about as you took your costume's hoodie and the stencil with you to Uncle Ben's basement, putting back the knife as you looked over at the cans of spray paint available to you...  
  
...  
  
What color should you make this thing?

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"Ned, look, it's not like I don't want to believe you. It's just-"  
  
"You don't."  
  
"How could I believe you man? Do you know how ridiculous this sounds?"  
  
"Dude, I know, I literally thought the exact same thing when I was Googling this stuff but I swear to you Peter, _I swear to you_ , this is legit. This is actually something on the internet that is completely and totally legal."  
  
"Uh huh. Why do I feel like someone being sold on the benefits and legality of LimeWire."  
  
After all, it sounded way too good to be true and, further more, waaaay too illicit to possibly be legal. So as part of Ned's own preparations for your whole superhero thing he was busy looking up things like police scanners to see if he could find a way to listen in on the cops while they went about their business. That way if he heard anything he could call you, tell you the info and alert you to any situations you and your fledgling superpowers could help the cops deal with. You both understood it as basically still being vigilantism and possibly being illegal to listen in on police radio wavelengths but... well, hey. When being a superhero you needed a little help from the police. It wasn't like you weren't going to return that help in kind!  
  
You'd expect it to be like those movies; where people need to buy big radio boxes that let them listen in to police wavelengths, with machines and stuff meant to hide your own radio wavelength so that the cops could never know. Something really secretive and cool, like a spy thriller... or you know, like Batman. Again.  
  
So imagine your surprise when Ned calls you and basically said;  
  
 _'YO PETE, DID YOU KNOW THAT THE POLICE LET PEOPLE ACCESS THEIR RADIO WAVES ONLINE, IT'S CRAZY!'  
_  
Okay, maybe not in those words and he definitely didn't start it with 'yo' but the point was Ned called, in a rush, to give you the above information... but in more technical terms. It all boiled down to one consideration though;  
  
"Dude, I know that it sounds like it'd never happen but, legit, the police are basically streaming themselves online!"  
  
"And I still say that sounds like something someone just made up."  
  
Ned rolled his eyes as the two of you finally got in his room, his parents out for the day at work as he quickly swiveled around in his computer chair, presenting his powerful desktop set up to you. A large tower for the actual hardware, a pretty nice screen, a good enough set of speakers and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The machine looked powerful and seemed like the sort of thing anyone looking to game excessively or, you know, do a lot of internet searching and archiving would want to do.  
  
Also, you know, lots of streaming. _Lots of streaming.  
_  
"Okay Miss Negative Nelly-"  
  
"Oh my God, do people still actually say stuff like that?"  
  
"No but I'm bringing it back."  
  
"Ned you aren't bringing it back."  
  
"I'm bringing it back." Ned said with an emphasized nod, causing you to chuckle as you palmed your face in your hands, Ned grinning from ear to ear as he turned back to his computer. "If that isn't what's happening... then feast your eyes on this bad boy." With a few keys Ned's web browser auto-completed to this one site; broadcastify, it was called. At first it looked perfectly normal; white and black layout, mostly white with the black meant to emphasize new bars and stuff, and... three options available; listen, broadcast and connect. You frown at Ned before the man just waggles his fingers around and typed in a more specific web page. From there it quickly flipped to an image of... the State of New York. With a few more clicks...  
  
Uh... okay. [Woah](https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/ctid/1855).  
  
"Haha! That's the face of a man who just got his point driven into the ground like a stake." Ned clapped his hands, rubbing them together as he waved to the screen. "Have a gander there Mr. Parker. FDNY Emergency Medical Services Dispatches, New York _and_ New Jersey Port Authority Broadcasts, Hatztollah Ambulance Service and EMS service radios and let's not forget; NYPD Broadcasts in several precincts."  
  
"... Not all of them."  
  
"Well I didn't say all of them did I just said that the NYPD streamed itself online. Looks like other emergency services and authorities got jealous and decided to do the same thing. Give me some time to look around and I'll bet you, I'll bet you, that I can find other precincts too. Until then... think this'll suffice there, Mr. Superhero?"  
  
"Y-Yeah..." You licked your lips as you looked at the various live broadcasts going on at that moment, your eyes scanning across the screen as you ran a hand through your hair. "How the Hell did you even find this?" You had to ask. You really had to ask. You knew that Ned said Google but, come on, there's no way something like this could just be Googled. It was literally several EMS broadcasts spread throughout New York, no way this was-  
  
"I Googled it."  
  
"I don't believe you." Ned just grinned, giggling like mad as he opened a new tab and clicked on a quick link to Google. With a search of 'New York City Police Scanners'...  
  
...  
  
"Holy Hell, it's literally the first result."  
  
"It's literally the first result dude!" Ned combed his hands through his hair, laughing like a kid in a candy story as he spun around in his computer chair. "I mean I think I get why they do it. It let's people know where there's trouble or danger so they can avoid it so, you know, that's useful to the people who'll listen in, right?" You nod; that... made enough sense, you guess. "I'm just still, like, totally blown away dude! Even if it makes sense, it feels like we've got some gold right here for this whole superhero thing! Literally I've got all of these broadcasts at the tap of a button! All I have to do is scan through whatever you're in the area of, keep an ear open and if I hear anything I can just call you or text you the information! Dude, no wonder superheroes in the comic always end up finding crime so easy! The police literally give you a cheat sheet!"  
  
...  
  
There was something about the way he said it that just made something buzz in your head. Annoyingly but not like the Spider Sense. More like just... a thought. You blinked as you scratched at the back of your head, brows furrowed. Ned was right. This was literally a cheat sheet. Anyone with an internet connection good enough to let them stream these relatively low hassle audio transmissions could have access to the broadcasts of several emergency services and who knew how good of a net over New York's various police precincts. Like the police were this comfortable just letting people listen in... even when crime in NYC was just... like...  
  
Hell's Kitchen was bad and the rest of the city, while better off, still had robberies and car chases going on. There was crime out there... and literally any crook with an internet connection could just catch a beat on what the police were doing and where...  
  
Just...

Just...  
  
"Whyyyyyy?" You purposefully drag out the word, feeling your disbelief just drag over it as you ran a hand through your hair, confused and utterly blown away. It was the only question on your mind as you considered this entire thing, looking at the screen as Ned looked over at you, quizzically.  
  
"What do you mean, why? Why what?"  
  
"I mean just... literally why!" Ned chortled as you threw your hands up in the air, licking your lips as you paced around and did your best to put your raging thoughts together. "Seriously this has to be time delayed at least, right or... or just something! It's New York City there's absolutely no way there aren't times that they say a license plate or check a driver's license number on their radios that'll end up on the air and I'm pretty sure that could be a violation of privacy if that's just blasted out for the world to hear." You see Ned's brow furrow as, slowly, your best friend seems to be catching on to what you're saying as he rubs his chin.  
  
"Yeah you're right... I mean you put that kind of stuff out there any creep listening in can just copy those two things down and start trying to screw someone's life over. It isn't a lot of information but identity thefts can be started with smaller things than just that." Ned turned around and started scanning through the website, trying to find some policy or trying to see if they had some disclaimer about the radio play going on before the both of you.  
  
"It's not just that which is bugging me though, and I swear to God if you make a pun right now-" Ned raised his finger for a moment, the Korea-American's mouth just barely having opened before he shut it and lowered his finger.  
  
"It would've been a good joke."  
  
"Dude, spiders aren't even insects, they're arachnids." Ned shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"That's why I was going to make a joke about bugs instead!" You rolled your eyes a bit as you tapped the front of your forehead.  
  
"Bug just means small insect, Ned."  
  
...  
  
"Ah really?" Ned frowned a bit as he took a moment, though your pudgy friend just grinned slightly as he looked back at you. "Well bug is still shorter than arachnid so I think I'll just stick with that slang there, Pete." You sighed at that, shaking your head at your friends defiance of the organization system that so carefully separated out the various Kingdoms, Families, Genus and Species of animals, insects and plans so carefully. All for nothing thanks to slang...  
  
"Whatever, point is, that's not the only thing I'm thinking of here. I mean could you imagine if some crook just had his phone on him in his car with even like a flimsy 3G connection to the internet while they listened to this? It's not even that people's identities could be blasted out for the entire world to see-"  
  
"Gangsters and stuff could legit use this as, like, some kind of early warning system." Ned finished your thought, eyes going wide as he continued to come over the site.  
  
"Exactly! I mean really think about it; a crook could listen to police dispatches and get an idea of where cops are moving in the city so that they can figure out where to go or what routes to take... or, who knows, maybe if they've already been caught onto and the police are on their way! I mean, can you imagine; if you hear on the radio that suddenly, like, three cop cars are heading to the street you're committing a crime on-"  
  
"You can probably take it as read that you've been found out and that you need to get out of there." Ned took a deep breath as he leaned back in his chair. "... I mean... if that's the case then... do you think it's still right for us to use this? I mean... that's kinda messed up when you put it like that, Pete." You nodded in agreement, cupping your face in your hands for a moment as you gave it a good hard think. Despite how much you were kicking up about this, how much this genuinely weirded you out... you already knew that there was a major difference between you using this and criminals using this.  
  
"I mean... we kind of have to Ned." Your best friend looked back at you, not bewildered or even surprised but just listening intently as you spoke. "This kind of speedy access to emergency information wherever I might end up in New York? I mean... could you imagine what I'd be able to do with stuff like that? If I knew where the emergencies were? I mean, Ned... with the way I'm going, I won't be bound to street level traffic like the cops can be. I can just head straight for the scene of the crime and start doing my best to help resolve things... or if it's a fire maybe I can save some people before the fire trucks show up..." You shrugged as you rubbed the back of your neck. "Or if there's a medical emergency maybe that'll tip me off to people being in trouble from some accident."  
  
"... Yeah, no way to slice it, that would be pretty useful for a superhero." Ned freely admitted as he leaned back in his chair, looking back at his screen.  
  
"We just have to be careful though... I mean, yeah we can use this and it'll be an advantage... but we have to remember that everyone else can use it to. So while we're keeping that kind of ear to the ground, other people might be too. So gotta be careful about that." Ned nodded at that, before a slight furrowing of his brow causing him to give a quick 'oh' as he snapped his fingers.  
  
"I mean, we'll have to be careful of the other thing too." You blink for a moment, wondering what exactly Ned meant as your overweight friend looks points back at the computer screen. "Yeah they keep this screen open for people but it's probably just so that normal folks can know what's going on for... I dunno, like, transparency or so they can avoid emergency sites, yeah?" You nodded at that. "So even if they keep it open... they have very specifically legal reasons for keeping it open. Legal reasons that don't exactly translate to..." Ned waved his hands a bit as you gave a quick 'oh'.  
  
"Vigilantism."  
  
"Yeah." Ned nodded as he wheeled his chair around to look at you. "Like real talk Pete? I'm friggin' stoked for this man! Like, you have no idea! Being the chair guy for a legit superhero? That's like... I dunno man, that's like a dream come true! I'm so friggin' excited!"  
  
"Yeah you seem a little more excited than me sometimes." You joked as Ned grinned, flashing a smile as he rubbed the back of his head.  
  
"Man, that's kinda lame when you put it like that considering you have the powers but, hey, I really am stoked... but, you know, that doesn't make... well, the reality of it any less there." Ned shrugs. "You're gonna be a vigilante according to the law. Heck the only reason Tony Stark's probably going before the Senate for hearings after he went ahead and attacked terrorists in the Middle East is because of the suit and because he's loaded. That's not exactly something either of us have Pete."  
  
"Yeah... can't exactly afford good lawyers." You admitted as you put your hands on your hips.  
  
"Plus you know... your powers-"  
  
"Lab table, right?"  
  
"I mean I didn't want to be the one to say it like that." You nodded in understanding. "It's still the coolest thing we can do and I'm still totally on board but... it is a little crazy, right? I mean, we're gonna use police radio in order to make you a better vigilante, Peter. Has that like... I dunno, messed with your head a bit." Ned kind of awkwardly scratched the side of his own head at the thought.

"When you're right Ned, you're right; this is pretty crazy." You admit, combing your hands through your hair as you considered the entire ordeal. "I mean... it's kinda nuts. Insane, really. I have actual superpowers...and unlike Captain America mine wasn't even on purpose, this was all just complete coincidence. Part of me still can't believe this is even real." You clench your fists. Even after two weeks these powers just felt so unreal to you. Like any given moment you were going to wake up and... well, just be normal Peter Parker again. That day never seemed to come though; everyday you woke up with these powers, ready and intent on becoming a superhero.  
  
"... And... I'm going to do something really illegal by becoming a vigilante. That's also pretty insane." Even as you say that though it isn't doubt that creeps up in your gut or even fear. It's... purpose. "I don't know though...something about doing this just feels right. Like it's what I should be doing...especially if guys like the Vulture are going to be more common. Maybe the world could actually use another superhero right now. I think that's worth the risk, legal or otherwise. After all, if I'm going to have these powers then... well, I should use them to help everyone else, right?" You turn toward Ned, the young man just grinning at you like a madman... which is kinda confusing. "What?"  
  
"Dude... you just gave a superhero speech!"  
  
...  
  
.....  
  
"Oh my God! I did!" You both laughed and jumped up, nerding out at the experience. Despite all the worries and problems that you could face... there was just one simple fact that marched you forward. You were going to be a superhero. You were going to help people. You were going to be... spectacular, amazing... who knew? In your mind that could never be a bad thing.  
  
It seemed like Ned agreed.  
  
"Yeah man, you're right. You got these powers Pete and you should use them to be a hero... and I'm gonna be right there with ya." You gave a quick huff at that, rolling your eyes as you smiled at your best friend.  
  
"As if there were any doubt of that? I already knew it Ned; whatever happens, we'll be in this together. A superhero-"  
  
"And the guy in a chair!" You both grinned like there was no tomorrow as you quickly shook hands, the excitement still coursing through the both of you. You couldn't have imagined going forward with this without having Ned have your back... you were glad you made that decision.  
  
He'd have your back and you'd have his, through thick and thin.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Still, there was one place Ned couldn't be there for you wholly. That was out on the streets; once you got out there fighting crime, it'd be down to you and your powers to bring down the crooks. To make New York City a better place. To save people and help them when they were in trouble. Do be the kind of man you wanted to be.  
  
For all that? It'd be down to you. You quietly crawled out of your window late in the night, scaling up the side of Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house in your costume. You slowly but surely Wall Crawled up to the ceiling and then, with a graceful pull and flip, landed right on top of it. You took a deep breath, the hot air blown back in your face by your mask as you stood up fully, taking a look out over the landscape of Queens. You gave a quick stretch, loosening up just a bit... before looking down at yourself.

You know what? In your totally unbiased and _totally_ professional fifteen year old opinion...  
  
YOU LOOKED SO COOL!  
  
You jumped around a bit, feeling your oats as you brought up your right hand. Your Web Shooter was attached to it along with some of the freshly loaded Webbing that you'd just gotten done that evening. With a grin you looked out over to a nearby lamppost and took careful aim.  
  
Alright... account for wind, the arc, distance traveled... aaaaand-  
  
 ***THWWWWIP!*  
**  
With a press of a button a woven strand of Webbing fires from the Web Shooter, arcing through the air at insane speeds powered by PSI as it soared. You hit the lamppost dead on its head, causing you to grin like a maniac. You quickly yanked back on the web and, between your own Super Strength and the strength of the steel of the lamppost, the web broke first and allowed you to pull it back in. Best not to leave evidence like that just laying around. Still, you couldn't help yourself, you were so excited!  
  
"YESSSSS-AAH!" You pumped your fist in the air which, to your surprise, caused a gout of Webbing to suddenly fire, strands falling down around the roof as it came back down from its trip up before you managed to stop clenching your fist. "... Okay, bug in design, maybe don't go with the single press..." You reached into the pockets of your sweatpants and pulled out a screwdriver, fiddling around with the Web Shooter as you stuck your tongue out. "Maybe... double-tap it? Just to be sure?" It sounded doable. With a nod you set yourself to fixing that bug in the morning. For now though...  
  
Man. For now you just... you were just too hype to sit down.  
  
You were there. You just needed to take that one last step.  
  
You were almost a legit superhero.


	8. Bank Run

Today was the day.  
  
You were finally ready. As you swung about your little hidey hole in the abandoned train station, flipping around and doing some warm up exercises, you were putting your babies through their paces. The Web Shooters, and yes, that was a plural, were on your wrists, the triggering mechanism visible just through the palm of your glove. It looked good to cut out a little hole for it there. You landed on a concrete pillar and then, closing one eye, you fired off both Web Shooters at once, sending thick ropes of Webbing across the abandoned train station and sticking them to another bit of rubble. With a heave you pulled the rubble off the ground and started swinging it above you, giving it a few goes around before casually tossing it into a broken down staircase in the station.  
  
If someone told you there was something better than this, you wouldn't believe them.  
  
You were laughing like a madman in your finished costume, leaping and jumping about as you sprayed ropes of Webs around, latching on to swing about and then quickly pulled things up, apart and to you... or, without enough constant application just sticking it to another surface. This... this was so much fun it should be illegal. You mean, yeah, okay, being a vigilante was technically illegal but disregarding that you couldn't but just giggle. You were hyped! You'd done some preliminary work on fixing up your older Web Shooter, trying to bug test it before designing a second one and found it... well, bug free! It was perfect! It was ready to go and, increasingly, so were you!  
  
Heck the only reason you were here in the train station right now was because you wanted to get some extra work in, try to get used to your new Web Shooters and how they fired. The angles, the geometry, how they worked, where you should aim, what their falloff was... you had to memorize all of this so that you could easily snap it up at a moment's notice.  
  
You know what? You were doing a pretty damn good job of that if you did say so yourself.  
  
Especially when you sprayed a long rope of Webbing out, grabbed onto the remains of some random bit of concrete pillar and then pulled it down, causing it to clatter on the floor...  
  
Yeah.  
  
You were doing a good job of that...  
  
Heck, you'd _done_ a good job of that.  
  
Now was the time to start applying it.  
  
You had no doubts in your mind now. You were ready.  
  
With that final thought you landed gracefully on a concrete pillar, squatting down and pulling out your cell phone as you placed a call into Ned. You were practically jumping in place as you excitedly waited for your friend to pick up the line.  
  
 _"Yo Pete! What's up? Getting a little last for a visit isn't it, why-"  
_  
"Dude. It's time."  
  
...  
  
 _"For real?"  
_  
"For real!"  
  
 _"DUDE, I'M GETTING ON MY COMPUTER RIGHT NOW!"_ You heard the excited movements of your overweight friend as he quickly ran over to his computer desk, the wheels moving as he slid into place in front of his desktop. You could just imagine it as you quickly scaled the walls of the building you were in, getting up to the rooftop as you looked out across Queens. _"Alright dude just give me a second. So where you heading in Queens man? I'll pull up the nearby precincts and EMS signals and start-"  
_  
"Not starting in Queens, gonna make my move in Brooklyn." You declared as you quickly replaced the cartridges in your Web Shooters, ejecting the empty ones from training and then slipping in some of the fresh ones you'd brought along with you. Two left in each pocket and two fresh ones in the Web Shooters... granted you might need to swing around in certain places but hey, it was Brooklyn, it couldn't be too bad.  
  
 _"Brooklyn? Any reason you're starting there? ... Wait, is this cause Cap was born there? You know I was curious about the whole Red, White and Blue you had going on, but-"  
_  
"Dude, first off, Red White and Blue are just cool colors, second, no, it's not because of Cap. Look, I figure if this whole vigilante thing is gonna be... you know, illegal then I should try to throw people off the trail of where I come from? Why start in Queens where people will probably figure I live when I can start in Brooklyn and make people think I live there?"  
  
...  
  
 _"You know what? That sounds like a plan to me, Peter._ " You hear Ned say with enthusiasm as you smile, taking a deep breath as you jumped off the roof of the train station and onto the abandoned tracks. With the foliage covering them up you could probably get a good run on over to Brooklyn before you'd need to start hopping rooftops. _"How long you think you gonna patrol, man?"  
_  
"Until I find my first crime dude! It's like, the later afternoon! There's probably loads of creeps out on the street looking to make a quick buck! Plus with you being my eyes on the web-" You snort as you hear Ned groan, "-I figure it shouldn't be that hard to find a crime in progress, right?"  
  
 _"Sounds good Pete, I'll call you if I find anything on these broadcasts."_ With that Ned went quiet and you nodded, slipping your cell phone back in your pocket. With a deep, shaky breath you try to get rid of the nerves as you break into a sprint, ready to follow the railroad tracks as far as they were hidden before you'd start hopping rooftops. Today was the day! You were totally gonna start your superhero career right here and right now!

**  
xXxXxXxXxXx**

**Four and a Half Hours Later  
**

...  
  
Well.  
  
So much for that.  
  
You sighed as you scratched at your scalp through your gloves and mask, sighing as you walked over to the edge of some unlit building before sitting down, legs dangling as you reached into the small backpack you brought with you. Today turned out to be a bust; Ned didn't call in with much and you swear, it was like the criminals were avoiding you or something. Like you couldn't find a single one. Heck, you would've taken a jay walker at this point for some excitement! Man, this was supposed to be your first day out as a big time superhero/vigilante and...  
  
Ah well. Hey, not every day was gonna have crimes on the street right? Hell, it was probably a good thing that no one was out and about hurting anyone. That meant that, for the evening at least, Brooklyn was kind of safe... at least int he spots you were patrolling for the entire afternoon and early evening. You pulled a sandwich you'd made out of your bag and, lifting up your mask, you started eating it. You'd probably stay out for another half hour, maybe a whole hour, before you started heading back home. You called and told Aunt May and Uncle Ben that you were just gonna hand out at some places around Queens before going back to school. You couldn't exactly say that Ned was with you, especially if they called Ned's parents and found out he was home. Still, they'd probably expect you back before ten at most.  
  
So yeah, so much for your first day out as-  
  
 **[*YODELING*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWao9izTMTw)**  
  
Oh hey, Ned.  
  
You quickly reached into your pocket and pulled out your cell phone, accepting the call as you brought it up to your ear.  
  
"Sup Ned? You got something for me?" You were honestly a little hopeful as you took another bite of your sandwich.  
  
 _"Uh... maybe?"_ You furrowed your brows at that as you readjusted your sitting posture. _"How close are you to 2 Hanson Pl., Pete?"  
_  
You furrowed your brow a bit as you thought for a second. "Uh... not that far I guess. Why, something going down?"  
  
 _"Dispatch came in through one of the radios. Someone apparently called into the local station about a strange unmarked vehicle pulled in around the BNY Mellon there. A car is supposed to be heading over there but from what I can tell it's pretty far away... and the road's kind of congested."_ You took a look around; yeah sure enough traffic seemed to be a bit heavy. No surprise with evening coming on people were probably heading out to spend some time at bars, at shows or just out on the town. Heck, maybe they were even heading back home from late jobs or from having some fun.  
  
"Bank huh? It's pretty late to try knocking on one of their doors." Still, nonetheless you stood up, putting your sandwich back in your backpack as you lowered your mask.  
  
 _"Yeah it's supposed to be closed. Given it's unmarked either someone's there trying to make a late deposit-"  
_  
"Or a sneaky withdrawal. I'll go check it out, Ned."  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


Wow across from a Citibank too? Damn, New York City really was a place with more banks than people it seemed like.  
  
As you hopped down onto the roof of the Long Island Railroad stop across from the bank... well, it was distinct. One of those tall stone structures that really stuck out in the Brooklyn skyline. Usually out the outer Boroughs weren't quite like Manhattan itself but this building looked like it practically belonged among some of the other, taller stone structures of good old Manhattan. Maybe it'd clash with the class office buildings but hey. Ned was entirely right though; unmarked black van parked out around the building, the front doors of the place open. No alarms blaring yet which was probably why it took the police being called into for them to know anything was amiss. You didn't hear sirens either so as far as you could tell they were still a long way off... a long, long way off.  
  
You were both kind of nervous and kind of excited at the same time, you were going to lie. You took a quick mental stock... you hadn't needed to use that much Webbing to swing over here, relying more on parkour and jumping around thanks to the height of the buildings. Still, when you needed a quick way across a large gap you had. Still plenty in each cartridge if you were counting right. With a deep breath you took a jump, landing on the bank itself and then slowly started to Wall Crawl your way in, creeping through the open door before scaling your way up to get a better look...  
  
Ho, ho, ho! [Fancy building for having a stone outside](https://www.bnymellon.com/us/en/_locale-assets/animation/img/careers-na/careers-na.jpg). You quickly continued scaling around, looking for the signs of trouble... and boy did you spot it quickly enough. Two guys decked out in black... well, except for one who broke up that pattern ever so slightly. One had the security guard, likely guarding the building after it closed, tied up to one of the steel decorations of the building, keeping him secure. From where you were positioned it looked like he had a few knives on him and a gun, pistol. The other guy had... uh... had...  
  
Did....  
  
Did he have a friggin' lasso?  
  
Well... at least he was dedicated to his theme. Because on top of the black ski mask he was wearing that was hiding his identity he was wearing a white cowboy with a black band and a six-shooter revolver...  
  
'I'm sorry... I know I'm in the middle of a bank robbery but is this 2018 or 1918?' You thought to yourself as you shook your head, thoroughly befuddled.  
  
"Ox, how's that safe comin'?" Oh God he even this super thick southern accent! It was just too good!  
  
"It's comin'." A deeper voice echoed out from the back behind the counter, behind a few metal doors. Presumably someone trying to bust open the safe... and now that you had your ears perked you could definitely hear metal grinding against metal.  
  
"We can take our time. The cops are still leagues off and this old bozo here didn't get the chance to trigger the security system. We're alone here." The other guy, talkin' smooth as butter and dusting himself up, stood up as he finished tying up the security guard who only had a slight bruise on the side of his head.  
  
"Good. Already dealt with the rest of the security. By the time sun rises, these city slickers won't know who or what hit 'em. Easiest payday we've had in a while, boys."  
  
Oh darn.  
  
He just had to say that didn't he?  
  
That was, like, the crook equivalent of saying he was two days off from retiring.  
  
Question was... how were you gonna make him eat those words?

Okay, classic! A bank robbery, perfect way to start your superhero career! A little unusual that these jobbers were doing it at night but, hey, if it kept more people out of the way of being hurt than that was all the better! You rubbed your hands together in anticipation as you sat up against the wall, keeping your feet stuck to it as you kept as quiet as you could. Step one, take their guns so that they couldn't just shoot this guy. Step two, swing in and knock the knife guy away from the hostage. Step three kick butt. Step four, be a totally cool hero.  
  
Now all you had to do was the land the most important part of all of this. The thing that would decide the tempo and pacing of the fight from this moment on. The thing that would decide _everything.  
_  
Your first superhero quip.  
  
"Oooh! Bank robbery huh? A classic!" The two thugs immediately jumped in surprise while you, hands free, aimed your Web Shooters and fired true, the lines of Webbing immediately striking the more lithe fella's pistol and the other's six shooter. "What a perfect way for a fledgling superhero to start his career!" You japed as you pulled both on the lines of Webbing, easily pulling their guns out of their holsters and snapping them back into your hands. "Now please, I'm gonna have to ask you both to go easy on me. This is, in fact, my first rodeo, after all."  
  
"What the Hell how is he-" The more fit fella with the knives seemed flabbergasted as he started up at you, sticking to a wall, while Mr. Cowboy grit his teeth.  
  
"Now I don't know who you are, **boy** , but you'd best be tossing our weapons back down here and gettin' on out... else you might just find yourself in a heap'a trouble."  
  
"Ah, now you see, I would do that but I prefer puns to guns so-" You quickly slap the Webbing and guns down onto a nearby surface, effectively sticking them there as you grinned, '-I think I'll keep your peashooters right here."  
  
"Boy, you just got yourself in a heap'a trouble. You have no idea who we are." The two men's agitation and anger was just roiling off of them at this point; your quips must've really gotten under their skin... you know, on top of effectively disarming them. Still, knife guy was by the hostage and ready to go for him if he chose to... time to fix that.  
  
"Ah, but I can take a guess. Let's see... well obviously by that hat you must be Marshall, so I'll take a guess and say that he's-" You quickly shoot out your left hand, firing a strand of Webbing and attaching it to the spot just behind the skinnier of the two gents with the knives. You pull and zip your way across the bank, rearing your right fist back at you move in for the attack. The guy's eyes go wide, visible through the mask he's wearing, as you just plow your fist into his stomach, driving the air out of his lungs and knocking him flat on his back from the momentum, "-Jimbob... huh, but where's Cleetus?" You curiously scratched your head at that, all the while the knife guy just slowly forced himself up on his feet.  
  
"... You think you're cute, you little shit?" Frustration teemed in this guy's voice, along with a good deal of pain, as he pulled out a pair of knives, one for each hand.  
  
"I do... then again, that could just be because I've been spoiled. My folks always did say I was a cute kid."  
  
 ***zzzzrrrrrrIIIIiiinnnnnnng***  
  
You quickly ducked around as a lasso suddenly zipped by, the loop having closed around roughly where your shoulders would've been as you looked over at Mr. Cowboy and clucked your tongue.  
  
"Now Marshall, haven't you already caused enough trouble with those lasso skills of yours? After all, your heist already _caught_ my attention." The man's eyes were wide behind the mask, the crook grunting as he turned towards the vault.  
  
"Ox, get out here, we got ourselves a varmint that needs squashed!" You hear a grunt of affirmation from the vault, echoing out as some heavy footsteps began to echo out your way, the vague shadow of a man coming into view...  
  
Well that probably wasn't great, better get to thinnin' this herd... heh, herd. You were even making quips in your head now. You were gettin' the hang of this superhero thing.

  
"Well before that let me go ahead and take care of you Stooges!" You quickly raised up both hands and aimed... but as you took in your surroundings you thought better of your gut plan. With a smile hidden by your mask you fired off both Web Shooters. For a moment knife guy over there seems tense... up until you 'miss' him entirely. The guy laughs, completely ignorant as your Webbing sticks to the table just behind him, the fella twirling his knives with a great deal of dexterity as he took you in.  
  
"That your best shot there, kiddo?"  
  
"It is actually, Larry." With that you gave a mighty pull causing the table to soar through the air with the amount of tug you gave it. Confusion was evident on the guy's face and, for a brief moment, there was realization... you know, right before the table crashed into his back. The guy's knives flew out of his hands and scattered around the room from the impact, the table cracking and breaking on his back as he was flung forward onto the floor. With a groan of pain you watch as he went still, very evidently breathing and alive but completely and totally unconscious.  
  
"That's one down... now then, here's my question Moe. I have you and Larry figured out-" You began as you looked back over at cowboy who, at this point, was looking very concerned, "-question is, where's Curly?"  
  
 ***zzzZZRRRRIIIIINNNnnnng***  
  
Okay that was a big one!  
  
A blast of noise erupts in your ears but you're already moving before the shot even goes off, gracefully jumping into the air to soar clear over the hail of pellets meant for your back. The shotgun blast scars itself into a nearby metal pillar, pellets bouncing around or embedding themselves depending on the force as you quickly land back on your feet facing toward the threat. There, standing before you, was a giant of a fella, easily over 6'8", as he cocked the shotgun in his hands, eyes narrowed as he took a good, long hard look at you.  
  
"Never mind that last question Moe, I found Curly." You said... admittedly feeling your oats a bit. You'd actually just been shot at. Sure you dodged it but... wow, you'd actually been shot at with a shotgun...  
  
That was both absolutely cool and kind of scary...  
  
Awesome, really.  
  
"Ox, keep him busy, kick his ass if you can! I'm gonna start the van so we can get the Hell out of here!"  
  
"But boss, the money-"  
  
"T'aint worth having the police show up in the middle of grabbin' it thanks to this bug distractin' us!" The guy immediately booked it for the front door, sprinting right past you as he sought to get away. Oh, come on, as if you were gonna make it that easy on him.  
  
"Oh come on now, you leavin' Moe? So much for Southern Hospitality, am I right?" You quipped as you aimed both Web Shooters again, firing two strands at the back of the cowboy's legs and nailing his feet perfectly. You and the cowboy only exchange eye contact briefly before you give a mighty tug on his legs, literally pulling them out from under him and causing the cowboy to sit in mid-air, perfectly parallel to the ground, for a brief moment. Then he falls and lands flat on his face and stomach, groaning as he quickly grabbed onto his nose. His hat actually ends up falling off thanks to the force of the blow, flopping about as the force of it all sent it flying.  
  
Before you could properly quip your Spider Sense alerted you to the big guy, Ox apparently, as you glanced over his way. With a majestic series of flips and stunts you quickly jumped around, avoiding the various shots from his shotgun as he tried to pepper you with pellets. Eventually the giant, bull of a man ground his teeth and tossed the shotgun to the side, cracking his knuckles as he seemed ready to engage in fisticuffs.  
  
"Oh really, you can't hit me four times and you're just ready to give up on the gun? Man, Clint Eastwood would be so disappointed in you. One second while I finish with your boss here though."  
  
"Now Moe, I'm really hoping that I didn't mess up your special bank robbing hat by giving you that little trip... or is that like one of the dozens of hat you normally wear everyday. Hard to tell with cowboys." You japed as you shot more Webbing at the cowboy, grabbing both of his hands this time and sticking them all together with his feet. "Well would you look at that, I hogtied-"  
  
"OX, KICK HIS TEETH IN ALREADY, I'M TIRED OF HEARING THIS BOY'S MOUTH!" The cowboy shouted over at Ox who, for his part, seemed all too happy to obliged as he raised both fists up and tried his best to slam them down on your arms... tried being the keyword there as you easily caught both of his meaty fists in your hands, looking up at him quizzically as he looked down at you shocked.  
  
"Well I'm sorry to say this Ox, but it looks like you're a bit outmatched... and New York City might be a big town, but-"  
  
"Oh for God's sake-"  
  
"-it ain't big enough for the two of us, Tex!" You imitated a southern accent as you flipped up and around, using Ox's arms as balance. He flinched back, figuring you were going to kick him and, in that moment of confusion, you took advantage. You quickly ducked into his open guard and delivered a powerful blow to his gut, causing the giant of a man to gasp as he stumbled back, unable to even put up his dukes to defend himself. Which was solid on your part because that just meant you got to go in for a side shot at his ribs, causing him to yelp as he glared down at you, fists drawn back up and ready to brawl...  
  
It was just a shame that with one, solid punch to the chest you sent him stumbling back, thoroughly out of breath and left gasping as he held onto his torso.  
  
"Oh fer cryin' out loud..." The cowboy muttered, eyes wide in shock as Ox took one step, and then two steps... before collapsing onto the ground in a slump, the floor practically shaking under his own weight as he passed out.  
  
"You know, when the main event arrived, you guys really should've just... MOOved over! Haha." You slapped your knee, giggling and chuckling to yourself as you easily hefted up Ox and grabbed the strands of webbing connected to the cowboy's webbed up hands and feet, dragging him along. The cowboy just grunted as you dropped Ox down by the knife guy, rolling out your shoulder from the workout your one arm got lifting him.  
  
"Now see here... I've got some advice for you, _bug."_ The cowboy growled out as he gave another feeble tug on the Webbing on his hands and feet. "If you were smart you'd go ahead and have just left this be... but clearly you're about as bright as a 2 Watt bulb so I'm gonna spell this out for ya. You'd best get yourself out of town after this cause, I promise ya, yer roadkill if you stay." Wow, given the beat down you gave him...  
  
That just wasn't threatening at all.  
  
"Nice advice, here's mine; try bitcoin next time instead of robbing a bank. I mean, I know the market for it is crashing and what not but, still, gotta be less risky than trying to rob a bank with a superhero in town, right?" You commented as you rolled out your neck, hearing a slight groan and or gasp of amazement coming from...  
  
Oh right, the hostage!  
  
You quickly ran over to the guy, who was still dazedly looking at you in amazement, as you untied him, a slightly older fella with some white or grey hair. Looked like he'd been working here for a while, all told.  
  
"Sorry about that, got a little distracted, hope you didn't mind the wait sir." You offered politely as you undid his bonds, the man quickly, or as quickly as he could concerning his age, moving to rub his wrists with a wince as he slowly stood up, still staring at you.  
  
"Hey no problem, at least I'm up now right... uh..." The guy just stared at you through his glasses, old eyes blinking blearily as he took you in. "... I'm sorry... I..." He looked you up and down, eyes hanging on the Spider Symbol on your chest for a moment, clearly catching most of his attention, before he looked back up at your goggles, trying to get some semblance of 'eye contact' "Who are you, exactly?"  
  
Oh right, that made enough sense. You were kind of new on the scene, right? Just dealt with a few mooks trying to rob a bank too. Introductions were in order...  
  
...  
  
Shoot you forgot to workshop a name!  
  
Well, now or never, right?"

Okay Pete this was your moment... just... just come up with something that sounded...  
  
...  
  
That sounded... welcoming. That sounded like what you wanted to be; someone who was here to help New York. Someone who was here to do some good. Not just as a hero, not just as a superhero even... but as a local. Someone who knew the city and it's people and would be there for them. Who'd use his powers for them and to abide by them. Someone who'd be a friendly face in the midst of all this trouble facing the city. A neighbor, almost. Heh, kinda of sounded like some saccharine Mr. Rogers type stuff but... well, it's what you wanted. Heck, there wasn't even a shadow of a doubt in your mind that it's what you wanted, this vision was so clear to you.  
  
"Oh you know, I'm just... your neighborhood Spider... Man." You snap your fingers as you come to a realization. "Yeah! _Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man_ , at your service." You offered a bow to the older gentleman, his eyes twinkling with some amusement at your showmanship as he rubbed his bruise a bit.  
  
"Well... Spider-Man?" He almost seemed to trip over it for a second but rolled with it. "Thanks for comin' when you did. These guys kind of caught me with my pants down." You chuckle as you turn around and quickly empty out the rest of your current cartridges to web up the trio of losers you'd just beaten up, ensuring that they wouldn't be going anywhere before the police arrived.  
  
"Hey no problem, that's what I do. Like I said, Friendly and Neighborhood, right?" You chuckle again, honestly so tickled by coming up with an honest to goodness superhero name as you replace your cartridges with new full ones. "I doubt these guys will be causing that much more trouble for you before the police arrive, right?" You asked as the guy just looked over at the webbed up crooks, looked back at you and gave a chuckle.  
  
"I think I'll be just fine." You smile behind your mask as you immediately break into a quick sprint toward the front door. "Thanks a lot there fella, really appreciate it!"  
  
"... Hope you got good insurance there bug, you're gonna need it..." The cowboy said one last time in a threatening tone as you spun around in place.  
  
"No problem sir! Also, I don't have it... but I don't think I'll be needing it there Tex!" The guy just growled again as you reached the front door and gave a mighty leap into the air. "WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!" Your cry echoed out into the night air as you fired a line of Webbing out to a nearby building, using your momentum from the jump and the elasticity of the Webbing to quickly gain speed and start swinging as you sought to get distance between you and the scene of the crime. You might've stopped that bank robbery and saved that guy, but you were still a vigilante. The police might not look too kindly on you just hanging around the scene of a crime.  
  
Still, even those thoughts were miles from your mind as you swung with one hand, reaching into your pocket to pull out your cell phone as you speed dialed Ned.  
  
 _"Peter? So how'd it go, was it a-"  
_  
"I STOPPED A BANK ROBBERY!" You cried out with a loud bout of laughter, an excited gasp immediately reaching your ears.  
  
 _"DUDE THAT'S AWESOME, YOU GOTTA TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT!"  
_  
"OH MAN WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN! YEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAW!" You quickly swung yourself through the air, doing a celebratory back flip as the night fully sunk in for you.  
  
Puny Parker was well and truly gone now. The powers had started that and now, with this act, you'd well and truly put that life behind you. Even if you had to keep up appearances, you weren't that kid anymore...  
  
You were Peter Parker...  
  
And you were The Spider-Man.


	9. First Day at School

Ugh... well. This was it. You knew this was coming sooner or later. Still, that didn't stop you from dreading it. From spending every waking moment just fearing this step. It was like walking down death row; even with your powers you knew that you were bound to end up in this situation. No amount of practicing or being Spider-Man would save you from this... you just had to keep your chin up, have your head held high-  
  
"Yo Parker, take a step to the left!"  
  
And step to the left so that Randy Robertson could catch a football launched at him.  
  
"Sorry about that, QB went long there. By the way, good to see you're still among the living there Parker." You nodded slightly as Randy immediately ran back forward to the rest of the football players, causing you to sigh as you shook your head... and then blink in confusion. Wait, what? Ah, probably best to ignore it for now as you readjusted your backpack.  
  
Welp, back to [Midtown High](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/62/df/29/62df29463f5bfc5383ceb2bd4286c3a3.png) it was. Honestly, the wide open campus and the throngs of students were actually a small bit of comfort despite your thoughts. It was a nice, familiar environment that, after the Oscorp incident, you had honestly felt like, at one point in time or another, you'd never see again. It was like school was a world away from you now with the whole Spider-Man thing going on and developing and... well, as much as you ragged on Midtown, and as much as Midtown High ragged on you, you did enjoy going to school. Heck, you enjoyed science and all that good stuff...  
  
Didn't mean that you didn't dislike other aspects of it though. Heck, no kid probably wholly enjoyed going to school after all. You watched as other kids ended up arriving piecemeal as well, unloading from buses or being driven up by their parents. You were lucky enough to be able to hop a bus to get here so that Uncle Ben and Aunt May wouldn't have to spend time driving you out of the way of their jobs to get here... though they did offer pretty strongly this time around. In fact you were noticing a lot of kids who normally rode the bus arriving with their parents including, funnily enough, Ned himself...  
  
Oh right, of course. Just a couple weeks ago some crazy dude in a flight suit attacked a field trip. A lot of parents were probably pretty nervous about sending their kids back out. It made enough sense, you supposed...  
  
And now you were just sitting here thinking to yourself and stalling for time when you should really just go to your locker, get your books and get going... yep... that's what you should be doing right now...  
  
...  
  
Man it sucked being back at school after you stopped a bank robbery. There was no way for school to live up to that excitement. Plus you were still decked out like you were... well, Puny Parker. Baggy clothes that hid your physique, your glasses, now fitted with fake lenses and, of course, your inhaler in your right pocket. Despite how much you knew you'd changed... well, there was no getting around the fact that you were still the same old Peter Parker. Which, of course, meant-  
  
"Well hey there, would you guys have a look! Looks like Puny Parker's still in the land of the living!" Speak of the Devil and he will laugh obnoxiously. You should've seen it coming with Rand Robertson but, sure enough, Flash and a lot of other guys on the football team were hanging out in the courtyard at the start of the day. Out of the group that noticed you Flash, duh, King Kong, Rand and Hobie ended up coming over.  
  
"Hey Flash..." You scratch at your head as the tall blond, an admittedly handsome dude who was built like an athlete, ended up walking over. "Long time no see..." _Was kind of nice_ was the part you left out. You could quip with the best of them as Spider-Man but... well, as Peter Parker you still felt the need to hold that back. Flash's laughter echoed a bit as he nodded, crossing his arms.  
  
"Yeah... uh, wasn't since that... you know."  
  
...  
  
Was Flash... uncomfortable? It was weird to see the normally boisterous jock deflate in the middle of razzing you, the young man scratching the back of his head before he shook it.  
  
"Yeah, I know." Flash nodded before that confidence slowly snapped back into place.  
  
"Figured it was my civic duty to come back and check in on you Parker. You looked like you were half dead so I had to make sure that little shout you gave didn't nearly blow your heart out." You wince a little as you recall how you felt following all that stuff with the Spider bite. Well that confirmed it; you looked as bad as you felt. Still, that didn't mean you weren't gonna stick up for yourself.  
  
"Knock it off Flash, I didn't look that bad..."  
  
"I dunno Parker." King Kong, or Kenny, said from the back. King Kong lived up to his namesake; tall, rotund but Holy Hell did you not want to mess with him for the latter. If Ned was overweight and unhealthy for it King Kong just looked like a brick wall of a person... except some of that brick was fat. "I mean you uh... looked like a..." King Kong seemed to take a moment to think, trying to put words together into a jape. "Like, uh... some kind of blood balloon, ready to pop!"  
  
...  
  
"Kenny just leave the taunts to us, okay bud?" Flash said, patting Kenny on the shoulder as King Kong just nodded. Yeah that one seemed more to disgust literally everyone. "But yeah Parker, I didn't see you look that sick since Freshman Year when you tried to run that sprint. Not that I blame you; five yards is such a long way to go." Well you'd give Flash that, his was definitely a more personal knock and... oof, yeah. That sprint there certainly had the right name for its exercise; suicide certainly seemed like a fitting word for how badly it had you wheezing and gasping. It's what got you off of doing gym for the rest of the year and this year.  
  
"Good to see you're fine though Parker. The situation was messed up." Rand spoke idly as he kept his hands in his jacket pockets, giving you some small bit of space. Rand was nice enough and while King Kong and Flash could give you a hard time, Rand Robertson was a cool enough guy. Hobie, as ever, really didn't seem like he had much to say.  
  
"Thanks Rand." You responded, though Flash crossed his arm and offered a sage nod.  
  
"Yeah, be a real shame if anything happened. Otherwise who would coach talk to on the bleachers when we're bustin' our humps during gym class? I mean, only Puny Parker can talk to him about his Aunt's daytime soaps."  
  
Okay that was one time and you didn't even start that conversation! That was just Coach Stanford just... being really weird and really laying it on thick with that soap he liked to watch...  
  
You'd only seen a couple of episodes of it with Aunt May, you swore.

You try your best not to roll your eyes at Flash's teasing, shrugging your shoulders as you readjusted your backpack. "Yeah none of us we're really ready for what happened back at Oscorp to say the least... and well stress like that and my asthma don't mix." You give a quick cough into your fist, selling it just a bit before you took a breath. "Never mind the running we all did." Despite the gathering of rather tough guys in front of you, there seemed to be a small consensus of agreement; that event, that attack on Oscorp, it really had caught everyone for a loop... and everyone was on equal grounds as having freaked out at the time.  
  
"Yeah; much as he looked ready to pop, Parker pointing out the employee stairs did end up savin' a lot of people a lot of time. It was a good call." You grin a little bit at that, grateful for the small show of appreciation from Rand. "Waiting for King Kong over here to get down before things could get moving would've been a real hassle." Kenny just gave a slightly amused grin, the large giant of a guy shrugging his shoulders a bit.  
  
"I'm a big guy, what can I say." A low chuckle erupted from Kong's chest as Hobie just nodded over at the side, Flash huffing a bit as the blonde ran a hand through his hair.  
  
"Yeah, yeah... guess it all turned out alright so... urgh..." Flash tapped his foot a bit as he seemed a bit irritated. "... Thanks, Parker."  
  
Wow, thanked by Eugene 'Flash' Thompson. Someone call Santa, apparently Christmas came early and miracles were raining down.  
  
"Sure, I'm just glad nobody got seriously hurt." Even you hadn't ended up getting seriously hurt despite everything so, hey, everything came up roses in the end... well, except for Oscorp considering all the property damage and having The Vulture steal that whatever it was. Things probably didn't come up roses for them but, well, you were more keenly focused on the fact that nobody got seriously hurt.  
  
"Don't think that means you aren't gettin' your knocks when you act like some stuck up egghead, Puny Parker."  
  
And the moment was dead. Christmas was over and now it was New Year's Day and you had to deal with the dead tree leaving pine needles in your living room. You just sighed and gave a wry smile as you shrugged.  
  
"Sure thing Flash, wouldn't dream otherwise." You watch as Flash opens his mouth to respond but, before he can-  
  
"FLASH! HEY FLASH!" Oh wow, the grin that forms on Flash's face as he immediately looks over his shoulder to see a group of girls making their way through the courtyard of Midtown High. Sure enough, Liz Allen, Glory Grant and Sall Avril were hanging out together, keeping grouped up as they approached. Oh yeah, none of you were old enough to drive a car so Flash and Liz probably would've had a hard time seeing each other over the two weeks.  
  
"Smell ya later Parker." Without even so much as another snide remark Eugene Thompson lived up to his nickname and bolted across the campus, Liz Allen laughing as Midtown High's power couple... of the Sophomore Year, sure, but power couple nonetheless reconnected. Rand seemed less enthused by the sight of Sally while Kenny just chuckled, the rest of the group looking back at you.  
  
"Later nerd."  
  
"King Kong." You answered back as Kenny trundled off, while Ran just offered you a cool, calm and collected grin.  
  
"Take it easy Parker." With that Rand Robertson was off too. Hobie, on the other hand, stuck around for a moment and, with two clicks of his tongue, fired off a pair of finger guns before sprinting off after his friends. You sighed as you shook your head, running your hand through your brown hair as footsteps approached you from the side.  
  
"Ah, I see you've already decided to acclimate to our usual routine at Midtown, huh?" You smiled as you looked over at Ned, the heavy set teen fist bumping you as you both readjusted your backpacks. "Didn't see you pull anything crazy out of your bag of tricks, so-"  
  
"Secret identity maintained. As much fun as it'd be, I really don't think it's worth blowing the whole Spider-Man thing over Flash Thompson and I didn't feel like potentially rustling the quarterback's jimmies. Just stick to the old standby."  
  
"Ah, sit and take it?"  
  
"Nerd Survival 101, right?" You and Ned laugh among yourselves as you're both ready to head into the building... before something decidedly different happens. You guys see the flashing lights before you see the cars pull up. Out in front of a limousine a police car pulls up to the front of the school's courtyard, parking in place before the doors pop open. Out of the driver side door is a man you're only vaguely familiar with; one Captain Stacy... didn't even know his first name, that's how little you were aware of him. Heck the only reason you knew much about him was because of who jumped out of the passenger side door; Gwen Stacy. A bit of an enigma at the school; she was pretty and apparently somewhat charismatic but not terribly social, a bit of a longer and kind of isolated, likely due to... you know, police dad, but she wasn't really picked on like you and Ned.  
  
As she combed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear her father nodded over at her, mouthing something or another that just got Gwen to roll her eyes, turn back to him and then eventually start walking to the school.  
  
"Wow. Not everyday that you see that." Ned said, crossing his arms as you nodded.  
  
"Yeah, Captain's daughter getting escorted to the school by her dad. Must still be nervous about Vulture." The person popping out of the limousine even furthered this context as a shock of red hair popped out of the back of the limo. Harry Osborn, son of the famous Norman Osborn and... well, guy who was in a decidedly weird place in Midtown's social circles. You watched as he quickly started running up through the courtyard, Captain Stacy muttering into his radio on his shoulder before dipping back into his police car. You finally took notice of a couple of unmarked vans that had been keeping some precise distance behind the limo that, once Stacy and the limo pulled out, started following them again. Looks like Norman Osborn wasn't taking much chance with this whole thing.  
  
At any rate, Harry Osborn was in a weird place in Midtown's social circles. You hadn't interacted much with him directly but the way he was described... well, people felt he was awkward to be around or kind of rubbed you the wrong way slowly. That he seemed just a bit weird. Now to you and Ned this clearly meant that Harry should've been one of you guys. This was probably the talk of people more suited to the more popular crowd finding Harry to be... eccentric. After all, the guy seemed nice enough, right? In fact you and Ned seemed surprise as Harry seemed to grin your way as he ran up in your direction.  
  
"He coming to say hi?" Ned asked, looking over at you.  
  
"I dunno, maybe? Did you talk to him or something?" Turns out you were both wrong as, instead of stopping to talk to either of you-  
  
"Flash, guys, hey!" Harry Osborn ran right past you and to Flash Thompson and his own group of friends.  
  
"... Man don't you hate it when that happens?"  
  
"It does seem to happen way too often..." You agreed with Ned as you both turned to watch. Flash Thompson seemed to stiffen a bit as Harry called out, the teen rubbing his temples with one hand as he faced away from Osborn. It seemed clear that whatever rumored weirdness that hanged about Harry that Flash and his group of friends agreed with the assessment...  
  
...  
  
"Hey, hey Osborn! Good to see you buddy! Man, it's been too long, right?" But that Flash Thompson swallowed it down, offered a bit smile, and hesitantly shook Osborn's hand. The reaction seemed to meld among the rest of the peer group as Osborn walked up... though... well, you were taking notice of something in particular.  
  
Liz Allen wasn't happy. Like... at all.  
  
"Yeah but, you know man, all that crazy stuff going on at Oscorp with that Vulture guy. Totally crazy right? Dad had me stay at home for most of the break to keep watch. Let me tell you, staying in the condo, totally boring."  
  
"Yea-haha... can only imagine." Flash said with a slight roll of his eyes that had gone unnoticed by Harry. Even you and Ned had to wince at the, maybe, unintentional flexing that Harry just pulled before he rolled into his next point.  
  
"Anyway, dad actually went ahead and hit me with my allowance after all of this so I'm totally solid for the next few weeks! Figured maybe we could head down to Coney Island before it closes at the end of the month!" That was the other part of Harry Osborn's weirdness in social circles. While Harry Osborn apparently rubbed some people the other way, he made up for it with the fact that the guy was well and truly loaded. The amount of places he could get into across New York, the stuff he could arrange, was legendary... and Harry wasn't afraid to toss that around in order to get with the in crowd. It was usually what kept him in with Flash and the gang, it seemed. At the mention of yet another round of Harry Osborn sprinkling some cash around for fun there was at least some sense of jubilation among Flash's friends, even Flash himself didn't seem opposed to the idea.  
  
"Well Osborn, what can I say but-"  
  
"No thanks. You guys can go without me."  
  
...  
  
Everyone turned to look at Liz Allen, the young women, dark brown haired and tanned, frowning as she turned her gaze away from Osborn's mystified expression.  
  
"Liz you serious? You don't just turn down someone when they're offering to pay for you to go somewhere! Coney Island's gonna be closed at the end of the month, this sounds like it'll be great!" Sally Avril shouted at her friend, Liz Allen just shaking her head as she looked back at Harry, eyes hard.  
  
"I said thanks, and I... appreciate-" Oof, the way she said it showed really not a lot of appreciation was going out, "-the gesture... but no. No thank you." Flash's brow furrowed as he looked at his girlfriend, you and Ned watching with rapt attention as the drama unfolded. Finally Harry seemed to snap out of his daze as he gave a soft, though obviously nervous, laugh as he threw up his shoulders in a shrug.  
  
"Well, hey, no worries right? It's cool Liz, don't even sweat it! It'll be a bit weird not having the whole crew-" Man even you and Ned winced as Harry Osborn referred to the gathered group as 'the crew', "-there, but I'm sure we'll-"  
  
"Actually Osborn, I think I'll pass too."  
  
...  
  
That gets everyone's attention and fast. Flash Thompson adjusts his jacket as he spoke, the blond standing up pretty firm and tall as Harry seems to be at a loss for words.  
  
"Come on Flash, you can't be serious. We're cool, right Flash? Just because your girlfriend-"  
  
"Look, Osborn, I know you haven't dated before but take it from me. When the little lady says no and like that, well, you follow her lead." Liz Allen actually smiled at that as Flash grabbed his bag and easily hefted it up onto his shoulder. "You guys have fun though, maybe we can try something else some other time." With that Flash and Liz started heading to the school, leaving the rest of the group in the dust.  
  
"... Well, just because those two are being a little crazy doesn't mean we can't have fun, right?" Sally suggested, shrugging her shoulders... before Rand Robertson just started walking off.  
  
"Sorry, but I gotta follow the QB's call."  
  
"RAND ROBERTSON YOU GET BACK HERE!" Sally shouted for Rand, before turning to Harry with a plastered on smile. "I'll be right back... after I'm done talking some sense into those three!" Immediately the cheerleader sprinted off, leaving Hobie, Kenny and Glory behind... though not for long.  
  
"Come on Kenny, we should get movin'."  
  
"Aaaah, but Glory... okay." It was always a sight to watch King Kong of all people get tugged around by Glory Grant and this time was no different, the comparatively small girl leading Kenny to go and rejoin the rest of his friends. Harry, finally, just glanced over at Hobie... who just shrugged in silence before chasing after the rest of his friends.  
  
"Ouch." Ned said, a small chuckle escaping his lips thanks to the sheer awkwardness of it all. "Wonder what Osborn did to get Liz that upset." You blinked yourself, a little confused as you watched Gwen Stacy just quickly pass Harry, a short shake of her head as she did so.  
  
"No idea." You said, truthfully, as...  
  
 ***DING, DONG, DING, DONG*  
**  
...  
  
"Ah crap, we missed breakfast. Good thing I had some back at home." You nodded in agreement with Ned as you both started to walk to the school as Harry himself finally seemed to snap out of his own stupor. "Welp, time to get back to the old grind, eh Peter?" Ned muttered, head low as she shook it solemnly. "I swear, from superheroing stuff to boring classes... what a joke..."  
  
You couldn't help but nod in agreement with Ned. That did seem like a downturn... but hey, at least not all of your classes were boring.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, TEACH!?"  
  
The entire class was utterly stunned as a stapled together flap of papers was dropped on everyone's desk, even you slowly picking it up and rubbing your eyes underneath your glasses to try and make sure that what you were seeing wasn't fake...  
  
Sure enough though, it wasn't. A list of assignments from this class that you'd missed over the course of the past two weeks. All arranged in what places in your books or workbooks you were expected to work in and what papers you were expected to finish... by the first week of November.  
  
"I'm sorry Mr. Thompson but I'm not. The school has a particular curriculum in mind that you all need to be prepared for. We've had to scramble to try and play catch up so, rest assured, this is hardly an ideal situation for us either." Your English Teacher said with a sigh as the students just all looked around, absolutely aghast.  
  
"B-But come on! We like got attacked by a giant flying vulture! That, like... has to constitute something, right?" Liz Allen asked, utterly perplexed, as the teacher sighed.  
  
"It did. Two weeks of something. Now we have to get back on track. Now, if you all would open your textbooks to-"  
  
...  
  
You didn't even need to look at Ned to know that he was grinning like a smug jerk at you...  
  
Agh, school sucked.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"Alright Peter just... give me a moment and I'll get this box down-"  
  
"Aunt May, you know I can give you a hand with that right?"  
  
"Nonsense Peter, I'm fine! Besides, you just got back from school! I can't imagine that you're that excited to get into work like this." Well... she was only partly right. While moving down boxes from the attic wasn't exactly what you had in mind as far as an after school activity, that didn't mean you had no plans for work in mind. You had wanted to head off to the train station to get some work outs in, help you learn to manage your new super strength and agility. Still, when Aunt May asked you to stick around so that she could get a bit of work around the house done you weren't about to say no! After the art lessons that'd be pretty rude by your reckoning.  
  
"Still, those do look heavy Aunt May, how are you gonna get them down while you're walking-"  
  
 ***DROP*  
**  
"-oh well, ask a stupid question, right?" Aunt May chuckled as you sheepishly scratched the back of your head. You did suppose it was only a box full of winter clothes so dropping it down onto the hallway would be a lot easier, and perfectly safe, in this situation. The middle-aged woman climbed down the stairs from the attic before swinging it back up into place to make room.  
  
"Honestly Peter, I appreciate it but you don't have to worry about Ben and I so much. We've still got plenty of kick left in us." It wasn't that you distrusted their health or anything, not really. It was just... well, having these superpowers and not using them to help with chores around the house felt... off to you. Like you knew why it was the smart thing to do; it'd tip them off if you could just suddenly and easily help them out. Still, to keep acting like you were so puny... eh, it was another one of those small annoyances you'd need to learn to deal with to help keep your secret identity under wraps.  
  
"God, this is always such a little hassle isn't it? We pack these up figuring that maybe, just maybe, they'll all still fit after an entire year but, goodness knows, that's so rarely the case. You're a growing boy after all and, well, so is your uncle still." Aunt May offers you a slight wink at the joke, a 'shushing' movement going with it as you quietly laugh to yourself. Uncle Ben might not have been out of shape but it was clear that he was getting older. Also... well, as much as your Aunt was trying to patronize you with the growing boy comment, you knew that previously you'd pretty much barely ever outgrown your clothes from year to year. Like it took you a couple years for your winter clothes to be no longer useful to you because of how scrawny and small you tended to stay...  
  
Which... well, certainly wasn't the case this year. Thanks to the Spider Bite you'd certainly grown and grown a lot just in the past few weeks. Heck your new clothes were already several sizes larger than your previous outfits, not just to make up for how tight those outfits were on you now but also just to look really baggy on you to hide your muscles. You definitely wouldn't be wearing any of your old clothes this year, that was for certain... which unfortunately meant that Aunt May and Uncle Ben were really going to have to shell out some money in order to buy you a whole new set of winter clothes. You... well, it wasn't that you felt bad. Like there was no helping it; getting bit by the Spider meant that there was no way after a year of puberty and now superhero puberty that you were going to fit into those clothes. There was no helping it, there was nothing you could do to change that, so it wasn't your fault.  
  
Still... the idea of your Aunt and Uncle having to shell out a pretty penny just to keep you in winter clothes just... well, it was another thing that they did for you because they cared and wanted you to have what you could. Meanwhile you were just fifteen and couldn't exactly return the favor...  
  
You could only hope to do so, in some distant way, by being a good hero and by being Spider-Man. Maybe driving down the crime and keeping New York safe would pay them back in some small way for all of this.  
  
"... Peter?"  
  
...  
  
"Huh, what's that Aunt May?" You asked, snapping yourself out of your funk as Aunt May smiled at you.  
  
"I asked what size should I be looking out for, Peter? Like what do you think you're wearing now? So I can know what we can keep and what I can go ahead and give away to Good Will. After all, if we're not using it someone out there might be able to." You grinned at that, the sentiment was such a typical Aunt May one. Still, it did cause you to think...

"Eh, just a few sizes bigger Aunt May. You know, I am a growing boy and... well, it'd be nice if you and Uncle Ben didn't have to pay for an entirely new wardrobe every single winter, you know." Plus it'd be really helpful for hiding your physique for the rest of the winter at the very least. Aunt May just smiled as she stood up from the box of clothes, pinching your cheek in a playful manner as you just chuckled.  
  
"Well Peter, thank you... if that's what you'd be comfortable with then I'm sure we can put that together." You nodded warmly as you rubbed your cheek, causing Aunt May to turn and look at the box. "Hmmm, guess I'll work over this box and see if there's anything I'd like to keep. After all, you are starting to get to my size after all, Peter."  
  
"Ouch, that's... like, a slight compliment but also a burn to my manly pride, Aunt May." The both of you laugh as Aunt May waves you off, causing you to smile as she shook her head.  
  
"I'll talk to Ben about us going on a little shopping trip to get you those clothes. We should have it in the budget, we've been saving up for something like this." With that May took the box of your old winter clothes and closed the lid on them. "The once I'm done with this, Goodwill should be happy to have these. You did always take such good care of your clothes Peter, I'm sure a child will love to have this." The genuine warmth and excitement in May's voice warmed your own heart; if there was one thing that got May or Ben excited or up in the day it was... well, probably first and foremost raising you. But they were also both good people and loved to help those in need.  
  
You were just thankful that you'd taken care of your own more casual clothes need. No need to have Aunt May or Uncle Ben shoulder double the burden for your suddenly growing, superpowered body.  
  
"Now run along Peter, that's all I needed your help for."  
  
"My help, pfft. You did most of the work yourself Aunt May." The older woman chuckled as she winked your way.  
  
"Well you helped me figure out your size so that was all the help I needed from you Peter. Now like I said, run along. I'm sure a boy your age has plenty he needs to do." Well, she wasn't wrong. Still you gave her an appreciative nod as you ran off, set to get down to business.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Alright Spider-Man, time to make some gains! You smiled excitedly, costume in your backpack, as you ran down the stairs heading for the front entrance of the house. Now that school was done for the day you were feeling pretty energized and anxious... you needed to burn some of that off! Time to get out to your secret workout spot and get some practice in!  
  
 _"... from yesterday comes to us from Brooklyn where an unusual incident occurred at the BNY Mellon! Local authorities say that upon arrival at the Bank they found several unusual strands of material coating the would be bank robbers that kept them and a few objects securely snug."_ You stop as you pass by the living room, halting in place almost immediately as you took a few steps back to look at the television playing some kind of news story. "The robbers, who police have yet to release the identities of, have remained rather silent on what went down and what created these rather odd trappings across the bank's interior."  
  
OH! IT WAS PICTURES OF YOUR WEBBING!  
  
 _"No live video has been captured of the substance as, not long after police secured the robbers and their equipment, the material seemingly disintegrated into thin air. With security cameras down and the robbers uncooperative as far as the events of the night, the only eyewitness to come forward was the security guard on duty for the evening, a seventy year old with the bank for the past year."  
  
"I tell you, it was the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen in my life! This guy in this red white and blue costume like good old Cap just jumping around and dodging bullets and shooting that web stuff out of his wrists like it was nothing! He walloped these guys and tied them up and left 'em! Called himself The Spider-Man! Let me tell you something, that was really impressive! Was such a nice young man too, called him 'The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!' Let me tell you something, I think my goose would've been cooked "  
_  
Oh man you loved this guy!  
 _  
"Police have noted that the security guard suffered head trauma, presumably while being secured by the robbers, and so it is unclear as to how much of the story is accurate-"  
_  
It was totally accurate!  
 _  
"-but what police do find to be certain is that yet another vigilante is on the loose in New York City, and that they'll be keeping their eyes out for this young man. The NYPD, already wrestling with outcry in Manhattan as The Devil of Hell's Kitchen has run amok, are pressed to keep law and order in New York."_  
  
... Well you can't say you were surprised. You and Ned expected as much. Still, what did surprise you was that little lead in; another vigilante? You'd have to ask Ned about this sometime...  
  
...  
  
Still, even if the police and media were calling you a vigilante, you couldn't help but grin as some of the stock footage the news report was using rounded back to the security guard, a grin on his face even as his head was getting bandaged up. You did good that night and potentially saved a man from being harmed... and who knew how many people's livelihoods you'd saved by stopping that robbery. You knew what you were getting into, knew that being Spider-Man meant that you wouldn't exactly be on the absolute right side of the law...  
  
But, well, you knew you were doing the right thing.  
  
Now time to stop stalling and get to work; you weren't going to get your exercise done on your own.  
  


" _Our top story continues to be the string of gangland murders occurring across Manhattan and The Bronx. Police have found five more..._


	10. Surprisingly Peaceful

You know what, you always had a hard time figuring out just why the jocks seemed to enjoy bragging about how much they could lift or bench. Back when you were still just a scrawny kid without much power you really didn't see the appeal in it; boasting about numbers, talking about how you were so much stronger. You got that it was a bragging thing but the guys who seemed to legitimately enjoy going through with the exercises seemed... well, kind of weird to you.  
  
That wasn't the case now though, not by a long shot. As squatted down with a huge bit of concrete squarely set on your shoulders, weighing you down at you practiced your form, you felt a great sense of just... energy. Like you were getting a little tired sure but there was so much adrenaline pumping through you, your body responding so positively to moving around and pushing its limitations, that you felt this weird semi-high, this kick, running through you. This must've been what some people referred to as the runner's high, that kick of dopamine you supposedly got whenever you did exercise. With a laugh you finished your squat set, throwing the concrete block off of you as you pulled your mask up and off.  
  
"Hoo boy, new record today. Gotta hand it to Flash, maybe he and his friends are onto something." You shook your head, feeling amused as you quickly wiped your brow of any sweat and guzzled down some water, smacking your lips are your parched throat was quenched. You wanted to do some exercise today after school just to help you loosen up and to finish your routine from yesterday... after all, you had plans for today. You put on your mask and quickly started packing up, placing a call to your good, good friend as you finished putting your stuff back in your backup.  
  
_"Yo Pete, what's up?"  
_  
"Nothing much Ned, just about ready to patrol around Queens. You?"  
  
_"Eh was just chipping away a bit at this homework. Figured I'd do a little bit before I started surfing the web, you know?"  
_  
"Ah trust me Ned, I'd know-"  
  
_"Pete if you make a web pun I swear to God I'll turn my computer off instead of help you."_ You both laughed at that as the telltale sounds of Ned rolling his chair over to his desktop could be heard while you slowly ascended the wall to climb out of the abandoned train station. _"Man, good to finally be back on this. After school this past week I was getting anxious!"  
_  
"Yeah I hear ya. You were right Ned, going back to school was kind of a drag after all this superhero stuff." You admitted as you scaled to the ceiling of the building, doing some last minute stretches as you got ready for your patrol.  
  
_"Nothing to do about it now but go ahead and get on board with the program, Pete! Let's get you out there and saving folks!"_ You laughed as you launched a web line to a nearby building, one better positioned to let you start parkouring across Queens.  
  
"Copy that Ned, keep me posted if you find anything!" With that, you zoomed off, landing on the nearby roof as you broke into a quick sprint and start hopping from rooftop to rooftop...

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


  
... only to find nothing by the end of the day.  
  
You quickly swing between two buildings, using a larger one to help connect the movement, as you land gracefully on your feet, sighing as you walked over to the edge of the building. You looked around, trying to find a sign of any sort of crime before you lifted up your mask and placed a call to Ned.  
  
"Hey Ned, got anything for me? Not finding much on my end and... well, starting to get a bit late in the day."  
  
_"Where you at Peter?"  
_  
"Uh... right now? I'm near the intersection at 150th Street and Jewel Avenue."  
  
_"Near Queens College?"  
_  
"The same." You waited patiently as Ned took a moment to flip through some of the online broadcasts, a notebook being flipped around.  
  
_"Nothing really happening in that area today, it seems. I've been taking notes of some crimes going on but... well, you've been too far away from most of them to make it before the police would be able to show up. Otherwise..."  
_  
"Yeah, other than that it's just a quiet day in Queens, it seems." You said as you looked across your home borough.  
  
_"Sorry Pete, kind of a bummer, yeah?"  
_  
...  
  
"You know what? Maybe a little but... eh, I can't be too bummed about it right? If I don't find anything near me that just means that Queens is pretty peaceful today. Can't exactly complain about not finding crime right? Means that people are doing alright." You rubbed your wrists slightly. "Still, if I could get around faster then those crimes you mentioned... but I don't really feel like I can just zip around on the webs yet."  
  
_"I feel ya. Still, apparently the police are getting calls about people seeing you running on rooftops. They might not say 'Spider-Man' all that often but people are seeing you running around. So who knows, maybe that'll keep things down just a bit."  
_  
"We can hope, right?" You asked as you sat down, breaking out your snack as you decided to take a few bites.  
  
_"Also I've been flipping back to Brooklyn every now and then just to keep tabs. Still seems like the area around where you hit the bank's been pretty quiet as far as crime goes."  
_  
"Really? Been a week." You say, kind of surprised, as Ned hummed to himself.  
  
_"Yeah, it's kind of weird. Who knows, maybe that news report earlier this week really got the criminals shaking in their booties?"_ You chuckle a little at that as you continue to eat your sandwich... though a thought does occur. You honestly doubted it; you were just getting started after all and a random name with no picture or much of a personality attached wasn't going to do much for folks. So it probably wasn't you... which left the other possibility.  
  
Maybe those three bozos from the bank robbery weren't just blowing smoke and they were a big deal. Maybe the reason crooks weren't moving back into that area just yet was because you'd knocked down some big boys unknowingly.  
  
...  
  
Either way, you really weren't worried. You'd done good and, hey, whether it be your fame or their fame it was keeping crooks out of that part of Brooklyn.  
  
"One can hope Ned." Still, no need to bring down the mood with Ned with such thoughts. "Anyway, think I'm going to go ahead and take another quick run around to see if I can find anything then head back home to do some homework myself."  
  
_"Sounds good. Tell me when you're heading back so I can shut stuff down on my end. I've got some more anime to pirate."_ You nearly choked on your sandwich, a wry grin forming on your lips as you laughed.  
  
"You'd best be careful there Ned. I'm a superhero now; I'll have to bring you in for doing the worst crime anyone can commit." Ned's laughter erupted from the other end of the phone as you could imagine the grin on his face.  
  
_"If you aren't careful I'll take you down with me Spider-Man. No one's gonna wanna follow a hero who's a filthy pirate, after all. Just ask Crunchyroll."  
_  
"Oof, hitting me with threats of exposing me. I should've been more careful about bringing such a sharp guy on board." You both chuckled and said your quick goodbyes as you closed the call, tossing your sandwich bag back into your backpack as you got ready to finish your patrol for the day. It'd remain a quiet day in Queens... but, like you told Ned, you weren't upset by that.  
  
After all, not everyday would be peaceful like this. Best to take them in where you could, right?


	11. Homework Sucks

"Now listen here Peter, it's vital that you make sure you always have the right tools for the job."  
  
"Right Uncle Ben."  
  
You found yourself laying down next to Uncle Ben underneath the car he was working on, the older man wiping some sweat off of his brow as he pointed out a few bits and pieces to you. He soon enough turned his attention to his tool box and showed you a few wrenches and screwdrivers of varying sizes.  
  
"Now there's some obvious cases where the right tool is vital to getting a job done at all. If you pick a wrench that's way too big for a particular bolt or nut you're trying to unfasten then you're not gonna get anywhere at all; you might as well just be twisting nothing at that point. What I'm speaking to more than that, though, is having the specific tool you need for your specific situation. You see, sometimes a whole lot of tools might look like they can be the right one for a job. You can pull a nail out of something with a lot of tools, for example. However, just because a tool can be used for a certain job doesn't mean it's the most ideal or the most safe. A hammer has that claw for a reason and it'll be the best way for you to get your work done, you understand?"  
  
"Yes Uncle Ben." You nodded, mentally cataloging all of this away. "What if I just don't have the right tool on hand and I have to improvise though Uncle Ben?" The older man seemed to pause at this line of questioning, rubbing his chin as he tried to take a moment and think that over.  
  
"Well sport, ideally you'd want to be able to get the right tool if you can buy it. It's just better in the long haul; using the wrong tool is bound to cause more wear and tear overtime to the point where you'll wish you just saved yourself the trouble and invested in the right tool." You nodded at that before Uncle Ben murmured to himself. "Still, if you absolutely do not have the tool on hand but you need to get a job done, my best bit of advice would be to get the closest thing you can get to that tool and make do." Uncle Ben waved at the wrench in hand. "Generally put if you can get close enough then things should still work out. From there it's just making sure that it's close enough in terms of size and functionality."  
  
"Alright." Good to know, good to know.  
  
"Size really is important. Too small and you'll either not be able to get the job done at all or you'll be using up a lot more energy than you need to. Too big and the same applies. However after that it just comes down to how close the tool is. In situations where a socket wrench would be the best tool for the job... well, picking out something that has similar functionality to it would still do the job."  
  
Right... this was probably gonna prove important for you as your work got more and more complicated the tools Uncle Ben had wouldn't necessarily keep up. So it was probably a good idea to just learn more about all this machine stuff while you could and plan for being... creative with your tool use.  
  
Woof, who knew inventing and creating superhero stuff would end up getting so complicated? **  
  
**

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

One-thousand-and-one. One-thousand-and-two. One-thousand-and-three. One-thousand-and-four. One-thousand-and-five. One-thousand-and-six. One-thousand-and-seven...  
  
Man jumping jacks just didn't have the same oomph that they used to, huh?  
  
You decided to stop once you got up to another twenty as you lifted your mask to dab at your forehead with a towel, taking a deep breath. Legs were sore and your heart was racing so you were good and warmed up. Time now to practice jumping. You kind of chuckled to yourself; under most ordinary circumstances that'd sound absolutely inane. Practice jumping? What were you, in Track and Field? Still, there was a very good reason for you to practice this now; namely that your super strength and agility basically made it such that you needed to learn how to control your leaps better and, even more importantly, how to extend out your range and leverage your impressive strength in order to go further than you otherwise normally could have.  
  
Jumping higher and farther than you ever had before... which was easy to meet considering just how much stronger and faster than you used to be, now that you thought about it. Hell, taking a mighty leap into the air without even trying got you farther and higher into a jump than you ever had before when you were Puny Parker. However, if you stayed satisfied with just that display then you wouldn't have much need to push yourself. So now you were looking to push yourself past your new limitations, looking to push yourself to the next level of your strength and ability. Which meant...  
  
Time to learn to jump good.  
  
You took a deep breath and immediately began springing around the abandoned train station for hours on end, just leaping, springing off of your hands, bouncing about and doing everything in your power to just get a little bit more height, just a little bit more distance...  
  
It would all prove to be more than enough this time around, going through the routine a second time. As the hours passed and your legs screamed in pain... well, after a while, you weren't here just for your workout. You were here because you were avoiding something. Here because you didn't want to face something. Here because... because you didn't want to go back home...  
  
Because you didn't want to face the nightmare. **  
  
**

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

...  
  
......  
  
........  
  
"Say Pete, what are ya up to sport?"  
  
"Just some homework Uncle Ben."  
  
"Sounds good kiddo, dinner'll be ready in about five minutes."  
  
"Alright Uncle Ben, I'll wash up and be done in a few minutes."  
  
"I'll go ahead and leave your allowance on the table Pete."  
  
"Oh, really appreciate it Uncle Ben, thank you!"  
  
Uncle Ben laughed, amused by your gratitude before he left you to your business. The sound of the door closing drew your attention more fully back to the homework you had piled in front of you.  
  
Which you did.  
  
Just some homework...  
  
...  
  
Man school sucked.


	12. Beware the Punisher

Alright. Costume... check, right in your bag. Enough money to be able to reasonably buy a ticket and get a ride over? Check check, it's all right there in your wallet. Ned willing to back you up on this being a plan you had but that he would've needed to ditch out on? Three checks on that one...  
  
A rise in violent crime in The Bronx and Manhattan that you wanted to check out. One big fat check mark on that one. You didn't really pay attention to this kind of stuff before; honestly it was just the kind of bad news that'd play in the background of the radio or on the television or on the front page of the Daily Bugle. Back when you didn't have powers, when you weren't aspiring to be a superhero, that kind of stuff was just out of your mind... granted it was out of your mind except when it was your neighborhood or your usual paths around the city being effected but, well, if it was a problem outside of Queens it was a problem outside of Queens as far as you were concerned.  
  
Now though? Now you had the power. Now you had the gadgets. Now you had the ability to go out there and make a difference. Stopping that crooks at the bank was just the first step and was proof that your powers gave you the ability to handle stuff like this. To be a hero. No excuse to back out now when you knew there was trouble. Now, granted, you didn't have a solid plan yet; far as it sounded on the news it was just some gangland violence kicking up; maybe several groups of criminals fighting and agitating over turf that was blowing over hard enough to make it into the news. That would be difficult for you to handle... but not impossible. If you made enough rounds, if you put enough crooks away maybe they'd stop with this and instead focus on just hiding out. At least that way innocent people wouldn't end up in the crossfire.  
  
A long shot? Sure, you'd have to actually find these people doing the fighting and stop them... but you were ready to take that shot.  
  
As you ran down the stairs, bag slung over your shoulder, you notice something out of the corner of your eye; Uncle Ben sitting in his lounging chair, relaxing and taking in the Daily Bugle. You furrowed your brow for a moment... you did tell Ned you'd be on your way to The Bronx soon...  
  
But you could kill a few minutes, surely?  
  
"Hey Uncle Ben, what's shaking?" You smile as you adjust your false glasses, catching your Uncle off-guard as he looked over at you.  
  
"Oh! Hey sport." The older man smiled as he lowered his newspaper a bit. "You look like you've got yourself up and ready to go. Whatcha got planned there, Pete?" You smile as you shrug, walking into the living room and taking a seat on the couch.  
  
"Oh I thought I'd go ahead and take today to just... you know, grab life by the horns. Not literally though; I think The Bronx Zoo probably kicks you out if you grab any of the animals by the horns." The older man laughed at your joke as he raised an eyebrow.  
  
"The Bronx Zoo huh? Bit of a ways out considering it's a school night." You nodded at that as you hefted your bag.  
  
"Yeah but Ned and I made some plans for heading out there and we figured, hey, best to do it now before they end up cutting hours next week, right? Plus I've already got my homework done so I thought no harm no foul." You offered with a shrug, Ben nodding his head at that.  
  
"Fair enough. Would you like a ride up there Pete? The cab fare is probably gonna be killer."  
  
...  
  
"Uh... you know, sure Uncle Ben, if you're offering." The older man laughed a bit at that as he smiled warmly at you.  
  
"Peter, I did say to just say something and May or I would give you a lift right? Don't worry about it so much sport. Besides..." You see a slight frown tug at the corner of Uncle Ben's lips as his eyes glance back over at the Bugle. Your own eyes glance over there and, well, sure enough on the front page; _Spree of Gangland Violence Overtakes Manhattan Island and Mainland_ read the cover story. Yeah, no surprise that it'd get so much play with the Daily Bugle, considering the paper itself was based out of Manhattan proper.  
  
"Rough time up there, huh?" You said awkwardly, Uncle Ben nodding slightly as he closed the paper to put it to the side.  
  
"It is... well, sadly, it's something you kind of get used to handling after a while of living in New York. Stuff like this tends to come and go in New York. The way to handle it is to just keep your wits about you and make sure you're not making yourself too obvious out there." You nod in agreement with that as you scratch the back of your head.  
  
"Sucks that's something you just have to learn to get used to."  
  
"It is Peter, it is... but well, every city has its fair share of problems. New York's no different. Just a matter of learning how to move through them." Uncle Ben chuckled. "Why I'm glad we all live in Queens. Might not be as fancy as Manhattan or have quite as much character as The Bronx but I'll take the trade off in fancy for making sure you and May'll be alright. Shame though; my childhood home was actually up in The Bronx."

Huh, you actually didn't know that about Uncle Ben.  
  
"So you were from The Bronx huh? Sounds pretty cool! If your old neighborhood is still up maybe you could show me where it is?" You see Uncle Ben smiles at your enthusiasm; sure you were being kind but, on some level, you really were interested in seeing where Uncle Ben grew up. It was bound to not take too long, especially since Ben knew you had plans, so a quick drive by while he told you about it sounded pretty nifty. You watch his face twist up into some thought, however, a small grin forming on his face as he thought.  
  
"You know... that isn't a bad idea. You're going to The Bronx Zoo, right?" You nodded at that, as per your excuse for going to The Bronx. "Well then we can go up I-295 and I can show you on the way there. The interstate cuts right through Throgs Neck and that's where I grew up in The Bronx. The Long Island Sound on one side and the East River on the next. Tell you what, it was a real beaut to wake up to in the mornings." You grinned at that, trying to imagine just what that was like as you leaned forward.  
  
"It sounds pretty nice."  
  
"It is... well, was... or, Heck, who knows. You never know how things really are when you're growing up, right?" Ben chuckled as he scratched the side of his neck, old memories playing across his eyes. "Still, I enjoyed it well enough when I was a young man. You know, The Bronx has so much going for it. So much of what people think of when they think New York City is there... sure, Manhattan might have the fancy buildings, but The Bronx had what really enriched this town. The Bronx Zoo, The Original and New Yankee Stadium and all those Off-Broadway theaters. Manhattan might have Harlem but, let me tell you, ever kid from The Bronx knew that Hip Hop was founded in our Borough. Man, when I was a little younger than you Peter; the talent that came out of that scene was incredible. Hah, you could hear it damn near everywhere.  
  
"Every game day the Yankees would play in town my dad would take me to that House That Ruth Built and I'll tell you Peter, it might've been an old place even back then but that Old Stadium, God, just had this way about it... then again, hah, maybe that's just me and my old mind getting nostalgic for 'the good old days'. Still like the New Stadium though, glad they kept it in The Bronx rather than moving it. Right next to the old place too..." You actually remembered when you were a kid, six years old... not too many years after your parents died actually. When Uncle Ben and Aunt May took you to watch the old Yankee Stadium get demolished. It was a celebration of the old place sure but, well, you could see the tears in Ben's eyes especially. Lot of memories got torn down with the old place, clearly.  
  
"... Gotta say that, 'The House That Jeter Built' doesn't quite have the same ring to it, right?" You were immediately rewarded as Uncle Ben's somewhat somber nostalgia was replaced by booming laughter, a twinkle in your Uncle's eyes as he looked over at you.  
  
"You got that right. Hey, they gotta start somewhere though, right?" Uncle Ben leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, as he took a deep breath. "God I can still remember the smell too. The whole neighborhood's the tip of that peninsula and there was always this smell of the day's catch in the air... well, when other less pleasant things weren't." You chuckled at that as Uncle Ben ran a hand through his graying hair. "Growing up so close to the shore you'd go out and see the Long Island Sound or go swimmin' where the water was good and... man. The Bronx was one Hell of a lady, Peter." You see Uncle Ben flinch a bit as he looks over at you. "Don't tell your Aunt May I swore in front of you, you know how she can get sometimes."  
  
Considering the words you sometimes heard your lovely, pure as snow Aunt curse or mutter from time to time when she pinched a finger or cut herself working on some craft project for her shop or for a client, you always found this particular house rule ironic coming from her.

You couldn't help but furrow your brow. All of this seemed so happy and wonderful, it sounded like Uncle Ben really loved his old neighborhood... but...  
  
"Then, I don't understand Uncle Ben. Why move away from the Bronx? It sounds like you loved it there. Why come to live in Queens instead?" You watch as Uncle Ben's lips fall a bit, his expression becoming more serious as his brow furrows. The older man gives a weary sigh as he scratched at the back of his neck.  
  
"Well Peter... sometimes a man has to step up and make the right decision. Even if it's not the easy one. You're right, son; I loved my neighborhood. The Bronx has a lot of things going for it too as far as this city goes. A lot of culture and a lot of what makes New York, well, New York is there..." Uncle Ben looked off to the side. "However... things were never spectacular in the Bronx. I can see that now with the benefit of hindsight... and as a young man who just got married? That truth was very evident to me, Peter." Uncle Ben fiddled with his wedding ring as he spoke, drawing your eye.  
  
"I couldn't just think of how attached I was to my home Borough. I had to think of where the best place to start and raise a family was. First when I married your Aunt May and then especially once we started raising you. In the end I chose to move to Queens because it was safer. It was better here than it was back in my old neighborhood. I stand by that decision too, one of the smartest I ever made. It was the right decision and the responsible one, kiddo." That said, you watch as a sad smile formed on Uncle Ben's face.  
  
"Didn't make it easy though. It's the toughest decisions that often end up being the most important, no surprise. I could've chosen to stay back in the Bronx, put my all into making it better... or I could put that same work into making sure my family would be taken care of in a place where they'd be safe. In the end... well, the choice I made was obvious. I still love the Bronx, it's near and dear to my heart and probably always will be. But I'll never regret the decision May and I made way back when. It was better for us and it's turned out better for you." The older man grinned at you. "You think you understand, Pete?"  
  
"... Yeah, I think I understand Uncle Ben." You awkwardly shift around as you fiddle with your hands for a moment, trying to think of the best way to phrase what you have to say. "... Thanks." What, that was it? Man, you were kind of lame. Your uncle just chuckled as he reached into the side pouch of his recliner.  
  
"It was never any trouble at all, Peter." At that Ben turned on the television. "Now then, not sure how much time you have to stick around but it seems like you've been busy lately. Maybe stay off your feet for a bit and join an old man while he catches up on the news?" You chuckle as you roll your eyes... you supposed you had ten minute to burn. With that you and Ben turned to the television where a live news broadcast of... hey, that was Reed Richards and his team! Holy moley, it'd been a while since you'd last seen them at a press conference.  
  
_"At any rate... after some brief delays while my team coordinated with NASA concerning a few mission details." The Reed Richards himself adjusted his glasses, taking a short breath as he did so. "The mission will be proceeding once a few modifications to the ship and our equipment has been made in order to help deal with the fluctuation of solar radiation that we've been seeing. The launch should be ready in a month, weather permitting." A whole throng of reporters immediately rose up, microphones presented as they threw questions the team's way; Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, Victor von Doom and Reed Richards looked out among the crowd before Reed picked a reporter from ABC.  
  
"Mr. Richards, over the course of the delay we've been getting some hearsay from various members of NASA that the main concern driving the delay on the part of the government has been a something a little... closer to home. That a member of your research team has some... well, controversial opinions that don't quite-'  
  
"Please, madam. If you're going to talk about someone who's in the same room, the very least you can do is say my name." Victor von Doom spoke calmly, confidently, as he leaned forward in his seat, Reed Richards raising a hand to keep his friend back as he looked back at the young woman.  
  
"... Yes, I can confirm that the government and our contacts at NASA have found Mr. von Doom's unorthodox opinions concerning-"  
  
"You mean his belief in 'magic', Mr. Richards?" The crowd of reporters immediately raised their voices up in a chorus of questions revolving around this. Grimm and Johnny Storm were more or less detached from the conference at this point, staying off to the side away from the focus of reporters while Susan did her best to answer a few questions along with her fiance.  
  
"My belief in the Mystic Arts has been decided by Mr. Richards here to have no bearing on the scientific acumen that I bring to the table and he has finally gotten the staff as NASA to see things his way. Reed has decided that my knowledge is invaluable as it concerns his endeavors and so has decided to bring me along. That you choose to scoff at the mere idea of something you cannot comprehend... hmmm..." If von Doom had intended to bring the crowd of reporters onto his side he failed miserably as his clear contempt for the people before him ended up pushing the reporters even harder in their question.  
  
"Mister Reed Richards, do you have a comment? Is it really true that you think bringing a mystic aboard this scientific mission is wise or conscionable?" The question was finally raised over the crowd, all eyes gathered turned to Reed Richards as the man stood his ground, fingers lightly rubbing against his temples. A reassuring hand on his shoulder from Susan seemed to bring the man out of his thoughts as he looked down at the crowd, a deep breath through his nostrils taken before he spoke.  
  
"... I will not deny that Victor here has presented me with... curious things. Feats and marvels that I, as of now, do not understand or comprehend." The man adjusted his glasses again before continuing. "As a man of science, and a doctor, it is in my very nature to try and understand things that, at first glance, might not fit into my worldview. To write them off as superstition or simple fancy merely because they do not fit into the paradigm I currently understand is..." A deep breath, released, "-unwise. Still, these are not the reasons I've brought Victor aboard. Doctor von Doom is a man well studied in various fields of science and engineering, very well matching my own studies despite his own personal interests in what he refers to as the Mystic Arts. His knowledge and technical expertise is what I value on this mission and, regardless of what other beliefs he might've held, I would've wanted him aboard this mission regardless. That is all, good day."  
  
The sudden end to the news conference seemed to catch a good many people by surprise as the team of five ended up getting up to leave at once, reporters barking questions as the station brought coverage back to front desk.  
_  
"Huh, seems like an odd fella to bring on board..." Uncle Ben said cautiously, you nodding your head in slight agreement as the news carried on, broadcasting a statement by one of Reed Richards' colleagues from university. One Stephen Strange who remarked at the absurdity of Reed bringing aboard someone who espoused such 'mumbo jumbo'. You knew Reed Richards by reputation; pretty much everyone with an interest in science and tech did. So yeah, it did seem weird to you that he'd pull something like this... but, well, maybe he understood something? Either way...  
  
"... Did you catch that guy's name though? 'Victor von Doom'?" You asked, a cheeky grin on your face as Uncle Ben chuckled.  
  
"Sounds exotic, huh?" You and your Uncle had a good laugh for a moment, hanging out for another few minutes before, finally, departing for the Bronx Zoo. It... well, it was nice to know how much Uncle Ben had cared, how much he'd given up, for everyone's sake.  
  
He was a good man.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

_"You sure about this Peter?"  
_  
"Yeah, yeah I'm sure. Not much point in being a superhero if a bunch of violence is kicking up and you sit on the sidelines, right?"  
  
You were casually swinging about The Bronx and occasionally parkouring on buildings as the situation allowed for. Unlike Queens or Brooklyn, The Bronx resembled Manhattan more in terms of tall buildings. Not the absolute height of them but there was certainly a lot more room for you to Webswing about compared to those other two neighborhoods. Which meant that easily hopping from rooftop to rooftop wasn't as much of an option. Webbing don't fail you now.  
  
_"I hear ya, I hear ya... I suppose it's kinda silly right. You stopped some professional looking bank robbers and here I am worrying about you getting hurt by some random guys with guns."  
_  
"It's not silly Ned. I appreciate your concern but... well, I did handle three bank robbers on my own and they weren't slouches, especially that big guy, Ox."  
  
_"Yeah, I remember what you told me about him. Seemed pretty beefy on the news too."  
_  
"Yeah. At least they didn't end up with anyone dead though; the security guard was knocked on the head not shot. These guys though they're leaving bodies and innocent people could get caught in the crossfire. I might still be a little green but, you know... I do have the power."  
  
_"Totally."_ You sighed in relief, glad that Ned was so firmly behind you. _"... It does seem a little weird though, right?"  
_  
"How do you mean?" You asked, confused.  
  
_"Well when you pointed me to that news story I did some digging looking for similar crimes. There's like 31 confirmed dead guys around Manhattan and The Bronx according to police reports and all of them crooks or gangsters or worse."  
_  
"Alright so there's a lot of bodies, that doesn't seem weird for like a small time gang war right?"  
  
_"Right but that's not what I mean. You'd figure with so many people dropping that your concern would be up, right? That innocent people would be caught in the crossfire."  
_  
...  
  
It took you a moment for Ned's hidden point to snap into your head.  
  
"Wait, Ned, are you telling me-"  
  
_"Nothing Pete. No civilian casualties recorded. Everyone the police found had a record of some pretty big time crime. Kidnapping, ransom, extortion, all that stuff."  
_  
"That... I guess that's lucky right? That nobody innocent's gotten hurt?" You asked, feeling perplexed. Yeah, it was totally lucky. Really, really, _really_ lucky. Like, totally improbably lucky.  
  
_"Maybe you going up in there and patrolling around is a good thing after all Pete. Get them to knock it off before someone finally does get caught up in all of this."_ A sigh on the other end. _"Anyway... uh, where are you right now? I'll start looking through different broadcasts if you've moved somewhere else."_ You nodded as you landed safely on the edge of a building, looking down from it as you glanced around for some street signs to orient you.  
  
"Ah... I'm at... Beach Avenue and Archer Street. If you could-"  
  
***Crash*  
**  
_"... If I could? What Pete?"  
_  
You stood up a bit and leaned over the wall as you heard the sound of crashing around a few floors below you. You did a quick flip to help stick yourself to the side of the building you were on to get a better look of just where you were. At first glance it looked like a normal apartment building but you quickly realized that there was a discount store at the bottom of it.  
  
"I'm over some kind of discount store... a..." God it was hard to read while looking upside-down, technically. "Brionne Discount. A dollar store of some kind... has a lot of stuff." Another crash, this one more clearly some shelves being knocked over. "A lot of stuff being broken right now. I'll call you back okay Ned?" There was only a grunt of affirmation from the other end of the line as you shoved your phone into your bag and lowered your mask, slowly scaling down the side of the wall down toward the Brionne Discount.  
  
"... listen, I'm telling you, you two numb skulls are making a big mistake! I pay for protection! I know that I'm looked after. If a couple of crooks like you think you've got more pull than-"  
  
"Oh listen to this guy O'Hirn, sounds like a real big boy, doesn't he?"  
  
"Heh, yeah... listen up mustache. You ain't made no payment this month. That means it's open season on you and the other creeps in this neighborhood. So just play nice, fork over what you got and we don't have ta break no more of your stuff." Man, someone with a real thick New Yorker accent and some guy who sounded like he came out of Goon Boot Camp were threatening someone. As you descended down you saw the backs of the two guys, standing over some knocked over shelves. They looked pretty strong... you know, for crooks. Nowhere near Ox or those other guys at the bank though.  
  
"Look... it... it isn't my fault! No one's come to collect a payment in over a month!" ... Okay what? This place was supposed to be crime central from the news and the Bugle, how was that possible? "It isn't my fault they're running scared and that cretins like you two are-"  
  
"You know, it's pretty friggin' brain-dead of you to keep insultin' the guys with the bats, ain't that right O'Hirn?" One of them, a guy with a shortcut hair and... a very [stripey green shirt ](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelanimated/images/d/d1/Sandman.png/revision/latest?cb=20100215203533)took his bat and swung it on the counter, denting it to cause the shop owner, an older fellow with... okay wow, the other guy, some [tough looking fella in a grey hoodie](http://specspideyfansite.yolasite.com/resources/Villains/TSSM%20MF%20Alex%20O'Hirn.jpg?timestamp=1268187049376), was right to point out the shop owner's mustache game. Ye God.  
  
"Heh, yeah, calling us them big fancy words when you're sounding pretty dumb. So just fork it over, before we cretin you in the head!"  
  
...  
  
"... O'Hirn just... leave the talking to me."  
  
Clearly the brains of the operation. Welp, wasn't exactly what you had in mind when it came to stopping crime but, hey, if two dopes were gonna basically ask for it you might as well, right?

Welp, time to do your business. You took a breath, psyching yourself up and getting your mind into that superhero groove as a small smile formed on your lips. You crawled down and around so that you were hanging just above the doorway, most of your body peaking over to look inside the store as you prepared your Web Shooters to take these guys out of the store and away from the shopkeeper. Unfortunately a bit of weather seemed to conspire to take away your stealthy cover. The clouds, which had been pretty overcast and dreary most of the day, parted to give way to a bit of waning sunlight, the rays of light striking you just so that your shadow would be cast into the store. It was fun to watch those two goons panic as they turned to find the source only to see you hanging upside-down... but it was a bit of a pain for blowing the element of surprise.  
  
Ah well, just meant there was more time to lay down some quips and have fun.  
  
"Wow, discount stores even have discount crooks, huh? Who knew!" Your voice was all too cheery as the crooks blinked their eyes, somewhat strained from the setting sun being cast on them from behind you. You used this distraction to quickly launch out two strands of Webbing, striking them both right on in the chest and making a solid connection. "Just a shame that this batch seems to have gone a bit stale. You know what, I'll do you a favor and take out the trash." With a solid tug you pulled back on both criminals, causing them to slam together as they flew back towards you and the open door. With a bit of agility you managed to bend yourself back, connecting your hands to the side of the building as you casually watched the two bozos crash out onto the street. They managed to catch themselves before they fell of course, your pull wasn't dragging their feet like that cowboy after all, and they turned to face you...  
  
Was it weird to say you kind of felt bad when they started staring at you like some kind of monster.  
  
"F-Flint... i-it's him. It's the creep!"  
  
"No friggin' way. He's been... I mean, I heard..." Flint, apparently, shook his head as he tried to keep his wits about him.  
  
"Ain't no mistakin' it, he's got the white symbol on his chest and everything, t's him Flint!"  
  
"Ah so you two have heard of me, good to hear that my name's already been spreading around. Figured that one news report wouldn't do much but you all must be loyal listeners." You couldn't help but feel ever so slightly vindicated that after one crime stopped you were already a famous superhero in New York. "Well, how about this, if you guys put down the bats then I'll-"  
  
"He's gonna kill us if we don't run Flint!"  
  
"-Yeah, I'll... wait, WHAT?!" Your eyes go wide behind your goggles as you took that in. Did he... was that why they were so freaked out? What the Hell kind of rumor mill had these guys tapped into. "Fellas, there seems to be a misunderstanding. I'm the _Friendly Neighborhood_ Spider-Man, not the _Psychotic Killer_ Spider-Man... don't even know where you'd get that idea from." If your words were having any effect it certainly wasn't on these two geniuses. O'Hirn, as Flint seemed to refer to him, was panicking and ripping at the Webbing on his chest, desperately trying to get loose from it and failing despite those best efforts. Flint, meanwhile, seemed to have a different approach in mind.  
  
"Eat wood you creep!" Granted it wasn't a very intelligent approach but still it was a different approach. Rather than trying to snap your Webbing to get away Flint ran straight for you, Webbing on his chest be damned, and took a swing at you with that wooden bat. Of course your Spider Sense barely even needed to register before you easily ducked around his swing, shaking your head disapprovingly as you wagged a finger down at his face.  
  
"Hey! Bad, bad crook! No swinging! No!"  
  
You quickly spring into action, firing off a line of Webbing, a relatively short one, so that it collides with Flint's hands and the handle of his bat, effectively trapping them there from their proximity to each other.  
  
"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"  
  
"HE CAN SHOOT GOO, WHY DID NOBODY TELL US THIS GUY COULD SHOOT GOO TOO!?"  
  
"Okay, first off, it's not goo, it's Webbing! Secondly-"  
  
"OH MAN HE'S SOME KIND OF FREAK TOO?!"  
  
...  
  
"You know what." You muttered as you took a deep breath and bent your knees. You forced yourself up the wall a bit, jumping as best you could so you could get some air. The movement causes Flint to hop off of his own feet too as he follows you while you quickly find a part of the building that looked pretty solid. One flip of the Webbing later and a Web Line was attached to it. You dropped back down, attaching your foot to the spot on the wall from before so as to let Flint barely dangle from the ground. The Web Line you had attached to the building was nice and taught and, with a quick twist you managed to mash together the lines on Flint's chest, hands and bat with the line attached to the building.  
  
"You can go to your room young man." With that you let go of the Webbing and nature took its course. The taut line snapped back, dragging Flint up with it as the short haired man screamed on his way up. He lightly smacked against the wall of the building on his way up before the Webbing finally got enough slack, but by that point Flint was a dozen feet up in the air and dangling by his hands and feet, causing him to panic a little bit. "Also, you know, if I were you I wouldn't struggle too much given that the only thing holding you up there like that is 'my goo'. Just, you know, food for thought." You see Flint nod slowly, ceasing his frantic swinging about as he just let himself hang up in the air.  
  
However, as one situation patched itself up a ripping sound alerted you to another situation that just escaped control. Your Webline attached to O'Hirn went droopy as you lifted it up, finding the other end torn off as O'Hirn freed himself, the goon laughing as he immediately turned tail and started to run away from you. It was kind of adorable that he thought he could get away.  
  
Kind of.  
  
You quickly fired off two strands of Webbing, one at each of O'Hirn's feet as you quickly snap them up, whipping O'Hirn's feet around and forcing the crook to the ground before you started to reel him in like a big old fish. Just like a big bass, O'Hirn splashed and flailed around, desperately trying to free himself from your grasp as you pulled him in.  
  
"AAAAAAAAH! HELP ME, THE GUY WITH THE SYMBOL, THE CREEP, HE'S GONNA KILL ME!"  
  
"Oh would you please stop I am not gonna kill you. I'm just reeling you in slowly but surely using my Webbing so that I can... you know, what, no, that does sound pretty spooky. Just don't think about it and rest assured that I'm not gonna kill you." With a grunt you quickly force O'Hirn next to a nearby streetlamp and, with a few quick fwips of your wrist, fired off several strands of Webbing which secured O'Hirn to it, leaving you feeling pretty sure that he wouldn't be getting away any time soon. You quickly emptied out your current cartridges by doing the same to Flint and, after all was said and done, you took a deep sigh of relief as you nodded.  
  
"There we go. Another crime stopped and another couple goons Webbed up. Hey, honest question. How much does crime pay anyway? I mean, I'm told it doesn't, but seeing a couple of well dressed gentlemen such as yourselves tells me otherwise." Both O'Hirn and Flint grunted, O'Hirn out of fear but Flint out of clear frustration, at your quip as you dusted your hands off, feeling pretty satisfied with yourself. Your satisfaction only deflates somewhat when the mustache guy... er, owner of the shop, looks out at you, a clear look of apprehension and fear in his eye...  
  
Though you're quickly assuaged when he seems to visibly relax, his body going slack as he leaned down to sit in front of his store.  
  
"Oh thank God. When these two idiots started screaming about the white symbol I thought... no, you're not him though. Thank you Jesus." The man quickly reached down into his pocket, somewhat old hands trembling, as he pulled out some Tylenol. A couple pills later and the man takes a breath, leaning his head against his shop as you just watched him, curiously.  
  
You're honestly surprised when he offers you some.

"No thanks, secret identity and everything, you know." The man just shrugged at that, you sighing a bit. It was nice of him to offer but, hey, you really didn't need it right now and a little bit of mystery never hurt anyone. Besides, by the sounds of it, there was more important business to get to.

"So uh... who are you anyway? Last I heard the spook who wears a costume tends to not leave Hell's Kitchen." The older gentleman tucked his Tylenol back into his pocket, leaving you to grin as you presented yourself, hands at your hips in a heroic pose.  
  
"Why, I'm your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, at your service." The guy just takes a moment to look at you in disbelief, his eyes glancing down at your chest before he shrugged.  
  
"Guess that explains the symbol at least." You nodded at that, scratching the back of your head through your mask as you looked down at the guy.  
  
"Yeah. Anyway, been hearing about some... you know, gang killings going on up here so I thought I'd scope out the scene, try to figure out what was up. Didn't expect to run into these guys here but hey, no reason not to stop a crime in progress right." The man nodded at that as he just took a moment to breath. "You were going to namedrop someone earlier before they cut you off. Your... I dunno, what do they call them? The guys who collect protection money?"  
  
"Paulie likes to call himself a racketeer."  
  
...  
  
"Pfft, Paulie? Jeez if that isn't the most stereotypical mob name I've ever heard." You said with a short chuckle as the old man rolls his eyes.  
  
"Hell it's probably not his real name. I don't think most of the guys actually running the show are dumb enough to give their real names... these two might though. They both seem a couple watts short of a light bulb." Flint and O'Hirn glared at the guy before you shook your head.  
  
"Anyway, Paulie, sounds like if I'm gonna get to the bottom of this gang war then he's my next stop. You said he hasn't-"  
  
"Gang war?" The man asked, looking up at you. "Thought you were a _Friendly Neighborhood_ guy. Sounds like you don't know what's up."  
  
"... Well I mean, _Neighborhood_ really means, like, all of New York. I'm not, you know..."  
  
"From The Bronx, huh?" You nodded. "Figures... so you've been hearing the stuff the news has been putting out, right?" The older man shook his head. "Gang war... what a load. Either they don't have any clue what's going on or they just ain't been listening to us."  
  
"Well... I'm more than happy to listen and be filled in." The older gentleman looked up at you for a moment, seemingly in disbelief... though, after a moment's consideration of looking at O'Hirn and Flint, he seems to nod and come to some kind of peace with himself. A deep, shaken breath leaves his throat as he shook his head.  
  
"There's no gang war, okay kid? I don't know how it all falls down but the crooks they don't really bother with each other like that, at least not around these parts."  
  
"But-"  
  
"There is a war... just not between crooks and crooks." The old man looked up at you, eyes slightly wide. "It's been the crooks, the folks like Paulie and the assholes above him... and one guy."  
  
...  
  
Wait.  
  
"I'm sorry, I... you... did you just say-"  
  
"Yeah, I just said one guy. One guy walking around with a white skull painted on his chest. Probably why these two numskulls freaked out when they saw you."  
  
...  
  
You... had so many questions right now.

"So... one guy huh? Who is he? How long has this been going on?" Those seemed like a couple basic questions to ask in this situation; after all, the news that one person, one man, was going around The Bronx and Manhattan to accomplish all this violence was... both disconcerting and almost unbelievable. Almost; after all, your frame of reference for what was believable had gotten considerably bigger following your Spider Powers.  
  
"Not a clue." The older man rubbed his face at that, shaking it slightly as he dropped his hands. "Don't get me wrong... I've heard... Hell, I've seen the guy. Seen what he looks like."  
  
"You've seen this guy?"  
  
"Yeah. Kinda hard to miss fella. He's... he's been somewhere at the very least. Guy looks built like a tank. Broad shoulders, big guy, tall guy. Got this... bulky... I dunno. He wears this trench coat, see? Under that it looks kinda like a shirt but it's bulky and shit. Got this white skull painted on the front of it too... again, probably why those two freaked out at you." Aw man, of course the month you decided to paint a white spider on your chest you'd figure out someone was into the whole white paint aesthetic too. You were so gonna have to deck this guy for stealing your idea... or well for having preemptively stole it before you could come up with it at least. "He looks like he's some kind of Italian fella though, he ain't pasty but he ain't too dark either. Got that black hair... fuck, I think it was buzzed on some parts like some kind of soldier which, Hell, would explain a lot."  
  
"Yeah, can't exactly pull off something like... well, like what the news has been reporting on unless he was good, right?" Wow, you feel like you needed to wash your mouth out. Describing the violence you heard reported on the news and saw printed on the Bugle and describing the skills of the guy attached as 'good'. Still, if he was still alive after all of it, the word would do, you guessed.  
  
"Yeah. Other than that, I've honestly got nothing for you kid. I don't recognize him and neither does anybody else in the neighborhood."  
  
"He from out of town or something?" You ask... but honestly you feel pretty silly about saying it. Why would some vigilante just randomly choose New York City out of every other town to start waging a war on crime? Of course he was at least from around New York. Still, it was just so hard to think that someone from The Big Apple could do something like this. Sure they were criminals but just killing people from your own city? It just seemed to barbaric, so out there. "Sorry, stupid question-"  
  
"Maybe a little bit I getcha. I think he's from New York at least; couple people who heard him talk says he got that thick accent, sounds like he's from one of the Five Boroughs at least. She guessed Staten Island but, who knows, you know. Only thing we can say for sure is that he ain't from The Bronx at the very least. Nobody recognizes him and nobody seems to know who he is." The older man groaned a bit as he scratched at his head. "God be damned if he don't know his way around though. Police haven't been able to catch him and the toughs who come by to try and scare him out and deal with him... well, they've been the ones getting dealt with in turn. Swear, it's like the guy knows the place better than we do. In the entire time he's been at this shit he hasn't been found... he's been the guy doing the finding."  
  
Speaking of, "As far as how long he's been at it?"  
  
"At least a month and a half. At least. It's possible he's been going on for longer before that. Not all his shit's been reported on the news; just the ones that leave lots of bodies. We've heard about one person here or two people there who he took down along the way but... well, before we started paying attention it's hard to say just what he was up to before everyone started noticing him." A month and a half of waging a one-man war on crime. You'd only been at this a couple weeks now and you'd stopped two crimes. This guy was piling up bodies left and right. Good God, he must've been doing what you were doing but every single hour of every single day at this rate. At least, when he wasn't resting.  
  
"So I'm guessing he... uses guns or something? The reports talk about bullets and such."  
  
"Yeah. If I had to guess he looted them off of some of the toughs he's been taking down... or he somehow started with his own stash. You wouldn't think that'd be possible in NYC but... well, I guess if folks like Paulie can fine a way to pack then this guy can too." The older man shook his head. "Nuts, it's all nuts. Guy just hit the neighborhood like some kind of storm and he's been tearing through ever since. Everyone from the racketeers on up have been dropping like flies. Anyone they've sent around to restore the piece... well, they ain't been seen again. World's gone fuckin' upside down."  
  
"Speaking of racketeers... you say you haven't seen Paulie in over a month... do you think...?" God the question was right on the tip of your tongue but you couldn't bear to say it out loud. Do you think this guy got murdered by this vigilante roaming around? This skull guy?  
  
"That he's dead. Hell, it's either that or Paulie's gone into hiding and isn't peaking his head out for nothin'... still, I wouldn't like his odds. The other creeps knew Paulie and knew where he liked to stay. This guy's relentless too... no matter where Paulie hid, skull would probably drag him out of hiding." The old man shook his head. "I tell you, I won't miss him. Paulie was an asshole and a prick, banged up my store in order to get me to hustle on payments before. I ain't gonna miss him... just gonna be frustrating when someone else moves in to take his spot. Least I knew how Paulie worked." You frowned a little at that, pointing to yourself as you placed your other hand on your hip.  
  
"Hey, relax, I've got this. _Friendly Neighborhood_ Spider-Man, remember? I'll keep an eye out." The guy scoffed at that, deflating you a bit as you sighed. "Anyway... what makes you so sure this guy could find him so easy? You're sounding pretty certain about all of this."  
  
...  
  
The old man sighed as he pointed across the street, drawing your attention to a small store across the way.  
  
"... Cause I've seen him work kid. That over there? Month and a half ago... I saw him. Right over there... watched four goons looking to get a payment from Carol get put down like a pack of dogs."  
  
You had to admit you were glad you had goggles on; you really wouldn't have wanted to look this surprised in front of someone.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

_Roderick Brionne was a simple man with a simple schedule. Wake up, eat a hearty breakfast, wax his mustache, open his shop, run his business, maybe head out for a little grocery shopping, have lunch, close his shop, have dinner and then go to bed. He was getting on in years, the days of wanderlust having left as, now, he usually contented himself with visits to or from his family who had scattered about The Big Apple, ready to chase their own dreams outside of The Bronx. Mr. Brionne didn't give much fuss to such things anymore; he'd done his bit and opened his own little shop at a corner in The Bronx. Now he was just ready to live out the rest of his days quietly and in some semblance of peace...  
  
Not an easy thing to manage in The Bronx of course.  
  
It was late and Mr. Brionne was sweeping up, his shop closed for the evening as he sought to tidy it up from a day of traffic in and out of the store. The Bronx... well, out of the Five Boroughs, it was probably the one that usually did the hardest. Staten Island took that crown a while back after the hurricane but, well, The Bronx was the problem child in New York. Despite being the beating heart of the city's culture there was no denying how poor it was or how badly things were going. Case in point, Mr. Brionne cautiously raised his head to look toward the other side of the street; Carol's Flower Parlor. Pretty fancy name for what was a walk-in flower shop but Carol was a bit of an ostentatious lady. A good woman but she had a bit of a flare for the dramatic.  
  
It was just a shame when real drama would walk up to her door.  
  
Mr. Brionne sighed sadly, able to hear those four toughs across the street as they harangued Carol. The woman always had a hard time handling the payments to these guys. While Paulie was the only one who ever came by his shop when it came time to pay his dues, that had been because Roderick had been more than capable of making his payments month to month for 'protection'.  
  
"Just please wait another week, I'll have your money then, there's a big wedding order that'll be due and when they pay I'll have your money!"  
  
Carol's pleas and cries for patience could be heard even from across the street. The woman always did have a pair of lungs on her. Still, Mr. Brionne knew what he needed to do if he wanted to keep the rest of his day quiet and peaceful. Same as everyone else in The Bronx; keep his head down, keep his mouth shut, don't call the police and just wait for these boys to be done. They'd either get their money or they'd make their point and then leave. No point in killing Carol after all, then she couldn't pay them. She'd be safe so long as no one was stupid. It was awful of course, that they had to live like this. They'd tried calling the police but, surprise, the cops had a way of not showing up on time and not finding out what went down.  
  
In the end, Brionne and others in The Bronx just accepted that this was their lives and it's how they'd have to go about their days in order to continue living in their homes. Things didn't really have a way of changing in The Bronx. When they did? Well...  
  
Mr. Brionne was disturbed from his thoughts, eyes cast about when he took notice of something. Rounding the corner was some man, looking around his thirties. Tall, broad shouldered, black hair trimmed down close to the sky, dirty but not quite dark tanned skin... looked like some Italian as far as Roderick was concerned. Guy looked like one of them kids he'd see after those Matrix films came out; black trench coat, black boots... black shirt, maybe, underneath the coat? It looked a little bulky to just be a shirt. Looked like there was some design on the front of it too but it was obscured by a few paper bags he was casually carrying as he strode down the street.  
  
He was walking right down the street and passed in front of Carol's shop... where he stopped. Mr. Brionne shook his head for a moment, already silently praying in his head.  
  
'Don't do it. Don't you fuckin' do it.'  
  
The thoughts, which had so often been aimed at the man himself, found new target as watched this stranger slowly crane his head over toward Carol's shop, taking in the action as one of the toughs smashed something or another up. The man didn't even seem phased; he just knelt down and lowered his paper bags onto the ground.  
  
"Fucking God dammit..." Roderick cussed as he threw his broom to the side and got ready to walk over there to tell that idiot to mind his own business. That if he got involved he'd likely just wind up a corpse on the ground...  
  
The double-barreled, sawn-off shotgun he pulled out of one of the paper bags immediately dissuaded Mr. Brionne from that, however. The old man's breath caught in his throat as he stared, his eyes wide as they caught sight of not just the weapon, but the design on the man's chest now fully open to the night.  
  
[A white skull painted right across his torso](http://www.c2e2.com/RNA/RNA_C2E2_V2/2017/_images/_guests/full/Jon-Bernthal.jpg?v=636112714667918102).  
  
Mr. Brionne just stood there, frozen, as his usual instincts kicked in. 'Don't get involved,' he thought as he watched the man load up two rounds in the shotgun, 'don't call the police,' rang out as the man turned and immediately began walking into Carol's store, cool as a cucumber, 'for God's sake just stay out of it.'  
  
"Hey, who the fuck are you?"  
  
Only one of the toughs noticed him as he walked in, the other three too caught up in their own business as the man just walked up without even pausing...  
  
He leveled his shotgun at one of their heads.  
  
**[*BAM!*](https://youtu.be/QVxZ4MbpaSs?t=13)  
**  
And then that man didn't have a chunk of the back of his head anymore. Carol screamed, screamed bloody murder as blood discolored the lights of her shops, shadows now cast as, presumably, chunks of brain and skull scattered and stuck around the shop and it's lights. The tough who had been the first to take notice immediately tried to take out his piece... but God, if that sight hadn't scared him shit-less. He immediately dropped it as soon as he pulled it out of his holster, the pistol disappearing on the ground from Mr. Brionne's view as he continued to watch, his horror constricting his throat as the man just casually pointed his shotgun at another of the crooks.  
_  
**_*BAM!*  
_ **  
_Another round and pellets reduced a second goon's head to a bloody mess, his body joining his friend's on the floor as the skull man dropped his weapon and pulled something out from under his trench coat. One of them was definitely his own piece and the other... it had a particular shine in the light. He couldn't quite make it out yet but, before he could, the goon that had fumbled his weapon finally picked it up and fired a round into the skull man's chest. Roderick choked, a guttural sound as the man barely seemed to register it, the round causing him to stumble back just a step as it sunk into his chest. From there the other tough ran up and swang the bat he'd been threatening Carol with, smashing it into the guy's side...  
  
If he barely took notice of the shot fired into his chest, then the guy outright ignored the baseball bat that swung for his ribs. He just turned and... oh, surprise, turned out the thing in his other hand was a knife. A knife he jabbed once into the tough's heart and then into his side, between his ribs. Brionne saw the man barely stand, feet going wobbly as he desperately held onto the skull man for his dear life. Finally skull turned back to the last fella and... well, he'd clearly had enough. He ran. Ran as fast as his feet could take him out of the shop. The skull man just walked out after him, the baseball bat ineffectively swinging after him as he stepped out of the shop.  
  
Brionne could only be thankful that the idiot hadn't run for his shop; no, he'd run down the sidewalk away from Carol's shop. He hadn't gotten far enough to turn a corner though, not even close. Not by the time the skull man had stepped outside of Carol's shop. Not by the time he raised his gun and took aim.  
  
***Bam*  
**  
Most importantly definitely not by the time he fired his gun, a burst of blood exploding from the young goon's head as he collapsed onto the ground, twitching slightly. The skull man just lowered his gun, his head immediately twitching to his side. The last tough, God help him, he'd run up to the guy and tried to take another swing at him. This time the skull's knife game was on point as he jabbed it into the bat and forced it off to the side, opening up the crook's guard as skull just casually pressed the end of his pistol into the underside of the tough's jaw.  
  
"HEY, WAIT, WAIT! PLEASE, IT DON'T GOTTA BE LIKE THIS MAN! Y-YOU WANT MONEY!? YOU WANT HER MONEY?! MAN YOU CAN HAVE IT! JUST PLEASE MAN, DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE! I... I-I-I HAVE A... KIDS, I HAVE KIDS MAN!"  
  
Brionne was shaking as he watched this display, the goon practically reduced to tears. A racketeer reduced to begging for his miserable life. God help him if Brionne said he hadn't imagined or wished to see something like this once but... well, now that he had, he couldn't help but feel sick doing so. This entire display made his old heart race... God, he felt like he was going to have a heart attack. The skull man spoke but quietly. He could barely even tell he was speaking until the goon seemed to respond. He just nodded his head, a flabbergasted expression on his face as Brionne watched his jaw work. He was talking, telling him... something? It was so low that, like the skull's voice, he couldn't hear it from his own side of the street.  
  
Finally, the skull removed his gun from the cook's jaw, causing the young tough to relax...  
  
Up until the skull sunk his knife into his gut again. The tough went rigid for a moment... then slumped down, the skull keeping his knife sunk in deep as he moved it around a little bit, finishing the guy off. Brionne felt positively sick, his head spinning and his stomach churning as his heart felt like it was in his throat. The skull just searched him over, pulling out a few things... one looked like a phone, one of them smart devices, perhaps. Whatever the second thing was he didn't pocket it with the phone. Same with the third; the guy's pistol. He kept them out instead and walked over to the goon on the road, still twitching from the pistol round that went through his head...  
  
Well, he was twitching until the skull sunk another round in his head. Same as before he searched him over, pulled a few things off of his person and then moved on... back to Carol's shop.  
  
'Call the police.'  
  
The thought rang in Mr. Brionne's mind. This psycho... he wasn't one of the goons. He wasn't a racketeer. He was a crazy person. A murderer... he was gonna kill Carol. He was gonna kill her. Roderick had to call the police, he had to get them on the phone and get them here now. Surely they'd come now of all times, right?  
  
Fear. Fear kept Mr. Brionne's feet glued to the floor as another shot from the man's piece rang out into one of the toughs on the shop floor...  
  
'Dear God, had that poor bastard survived a fucking shotgun round to his head?' Brionne asked in his mind, horrified as the skull checked him over and then moved on to the last fella. He didn't fire his gun again, instead, putting it and his knife back into trench coat before checking him over...  
  
Then he turned and faced Carol, her sobs audible now in the silence as she cowered...  
  
Mr. Brionne... he... he...  
  
He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable...  
  
...  
  
After a moment's silence the old man opened his eyes, startling as he saw the skull standing there at the front of Carol's shop, looking over at him. Mr. Brionne knew in his mind he was dead; this guy had probably slit Carol's throat and now he was going to put him down. He'd waited too long to call the police. He was a dead man...  
  
...  
  
Instead the man knelt down. He put his shotgun back into one bag before depositing the various pistols of the toughs into the bags. He didn't bother to wipe the blood off of himself. Instead he just stood up, bags back in his hands as... as he just fucking started walking back down the street, same direction he'd been heading as before. As if he hadn't done a fucking thing. Roderick waited, watching as the skull man just casually walked down the street and then disappeared around a corner, like some kind of phantom terror.  
  
Immediately he ran. He ran as fast as his old body could handle. He ran across the street, dodging bodies and doing his damned best to ignore the bloody chunks on the ground or the blood that practically painted the shop now. He ran behind the counter, trying to see the fate of his neighbor...  
  
On some level, he was relieved to see Carol there, sobbing and crying as she huddled down, sitting on the floor and leaning against a wall as she just tried to hide. Brionne couldn't get one word out of her and, instead, took a look around the shop...  
  
He noticed them on the counter. Four wallets and a large amount of cash, presumably all from the would be racketeers, had been stacked on her counter...  
  
_

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"... The entire time that psycho only ever said one thing to her. 'Get out of town for a while'." The old man shook his head as he finished his story, leaving you to just furrow your brow as the tale came to a close.  
  
"... Was that a threat or advice?" You asked, trying to sound as casual as you could even as you glanced over at the closed, taped off shop.  
  
"Thought it was the former at first. Not that it mattered; Carol arranged to stay with some relatives outside of the city and then got the Hell out of Dodge that night. Good thing too; next day some more goons came by to check in on what happened. They wrecked up her shop real good before questioning some of us in the neighborhood..."  
  
"You... tell them what happened?" The old man just scoffed.  
  
"Course I fuckin' did. I wasn't going to get whacked for the sake of that guy. Told them everything that happened. They didn't seem to believe me at the time, not that I blame them, but my protection was still paid for so they couldn't touch me. If Carol had been there... well, she probably would've been dead." The old man shrugged as he messed with his mustache. "So I guess it was advice."  
  
"Oh good..." You muttered... Hell, at this point even you weren't sure if you were being sarcastic or not. Hearing all of that was kind of a trip in and of itself. You took a deep breath as you put your hands on your hips, trying to sort out the mess in your head.  
  
"... So, you're some kind of weirdo right?"  
  
"I prefer superhero but... you know."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
........  
  
"He ain't in The Bronx anymore." You arched an eyebrow at that, watching the old man, fiddle with his hands. "Ever since then... well, we've been keeping an eye on things. Listening to the reports. He ain't been in The Bronx for a couple weeks. Moved on to Manhattan. It's where... well, it's where the death toll's been climbing these past couple weeks so it sounds like where he is." You turned to face the old man. "Look... things don't change here in The Bronx. When they do, it's usually for the worse. I don't know what you or skull out there are up to but... fuck, I dunno. Muckin' up the peace like this is bound to start something..." The old man scratched the back of his head.  
  
"You came here wanting to do something about the 'gang war'. Well... there ya go. Knock yourself out."  
  
...  
  
Well he sounded positively enthused.

You took a deep breath as you really took your time to consider all of that. Like, as long as you'd had your powers, you were technically only Spider-Man for what, a week, a little over it? This guy, this skull, this man who could just walk casually into a store with four goons and blast them all away without even pausing, without even taking the time to consider his actions... he'd been at this for nearly two months according to the old man here! You'd stopped those bank robbers but damn, this guy sounded like he was some kind of major problem. Shouldn't it just be left to...  
  
To...  
  
To the police that hadn't so much as spotted or id'ed him in two months. To the normal civilians who were being put at risk by one man's war on crime in New York? By the criminals who by now must be getting desperate with so many bodies on the ground?  
  
...  
  
Or should it come down to the person who had power. Who had the ability to step up and do what was right. To put an end to this before innocent people got hurt. This guy might not've hurt Carol, or any innocents according to the reports Ned was reading... but that didn't mean they weren't being hurt. That they wouldn't be if things escalated. Carol had been forced to leave town for her own safety... who knew how many other people had to do the same... or worse, lost their livelihoods outright.  
  
Whatever good he might've been doing, and that was a big 'whatever' considering he was murdering people, criminals or not... this guy, this skull, he was also putting people at risk. The police weren't stopping and, for now, criminals weren't either... not that you'd rather see this skull taken down by the crime in this city...  
  
Your eyes narrow, unseen behind your goggles, as you took a deep, long breath. You exhaled; got rid of all the angst, all the nerves, all the fear... okay, maybe not all of it. But enough. Enough to stand tall. Enough to turn to the old man and nod.  
  
"Well if the police aren't doing their jobs then... well, maybe I'll have to give it a try." The old man looked up at you, somewhat stunned by this declaration as you gave him a quick salute. "Thanks, you've been a lot of help."  
  
"Uh... pfft... sure, whatever you say kid." The old man scratched the back of his head at that. Whether he believed you could do this or he believed he did help, it wasn't clear. Still... that just meant you had to convince him. As you turned to leave, however, a thought crossed your mind. "Oh, right! You mentioned some other guy before. 'The Devil of Hell's Kitchen'... what's his deal?"  
  
"Huh? Oh!" The old man seemed surprised as he shrugged. "Only really know the name. Apparently he doesn't leave... well, take a guess." You nodded at that.  
  
"Well, thanks anyway." With that, after reloading your web cartridges, you slung out a web and were well on your way, swinging up to a nearby rooftop so you could start parkouring once again. As you did so you quickly reached into your backpack and pulled out your phone, dialing Ned.  
  
_"Hey, how'd it go? You find what you were looking for?"  
_  
"Close enough. Listen Ned, do me a favor and try to look up where these killings have been going down. Anywhere in NYC in the last two months that've experienced a... firefight that left more than three bodies on the ground."  
  
_"Alright... why, got a lead?"  
_  
"Yeah... yeah I do." With that you closed your phone and flung out your Webbing again, zipping to a far away building.  
  
You had a lead alright. Now all you had to do was chase it down.  
  
If the police couldn't get this guy in jail to keep the citizens of New York safe... well.  
  
Spider-Man would.


	13. A Night At The Museum

Alright, now then. Introduce a little more of this here and a little more of that there. You wiped at your brow as you worked the chemicals in the various beakers, trying your best to keep the mixture just right. You'd come up with an idea of how to improve your Webbing. See, your Webbing was thick and strong in order to help more easily snare people up and to give you an easier time Web Swinging without worrying about the Webline breaking. Now this was good but the thickness of the Webbing was what made it hard to fit a whole bunch of it into a single cartridge. It just filled up too quickly, even when you compressed it down with the air.  
  
Now, you didn't want to attack the problem by weakening the formula, which would be one way to fit more of it in there. If it wasn't as strong then it'd be easier to pack more in there. No, if your last few encounters showed anything it was important for your Webbing to hold people in place and make sure they stayed there long enough for the cops to show up. However... what if you could make the Webbing thinner while keeping its strength? Making it more compact in its expanded form could allow for it to be more easily squeezed into a cartridge in its collapsed form. Not necessarily attacking the bonds but making them tighter, making them squeeze harder together into a more singular rope? Or maybe making it so that the formula when collapsed without exposure to air was just thinner itself?  
  
Well, these were the ideas you were working with and, finally, after several hours of working away at your chemistry set, you were ready to take stock of the formula you'd created with this batch of chemicals...  
  
...  
  
Ew...  
  
Ew ew ew ew ew!  
  
Oh God, it was runny like chunky, three month old milk, ew!  
  
You quickly got up and grabbed a nearby towel, drying off your hands as you looked over at the slowly dripping, dropping formula you'd created. Once you cleaned yourself you slowly approached it and took a closer look. Sure enough, the stuff was runny and gooey and more liquid than solid mass when exposed to air, when it should've been solidifying into the Webbing you'd been working with these past few weeks. Fantastic; you'd thinned out the formula too much and now this particular batch was worthless. Ah well, you could try again some other time. It was only five bucks after all, not like it was the end of the world...  
  
Just would've been nice before you went out tonight. You took a deep breath as you quickly walked over and grabbed your bag from a nearby hanger you'd set up, inside of it your costume, Web Shooters and some Webbing for the evening just in case this new batch didn't work out. You could've used a little more ammo when going after this skull guy but... well, beggars couldn't be choosers. You couldn't just let him roam free without trying your best to stop him. If that meant going with what you had, so be it.  
  
Just would've been nice was all you were thinking as you turned off the light behind you, ready to head out for the evening.  
  
Hopefully tonight would go better than your upgrade attempt did.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
...  
  
Okay...  
  
Woah, okay!  
  
WOAH WOAH WOAH!  
  
OKAY! REALLY HIGH! [REALLY HIGH RIGHT NOW](https://1dib1q3k1s3e11a5av3bhlnb-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sky-room.jpg)!  
  
You grunted and let out little panicked yells as you quickly swung from building to building, Manhattan's skyline laying open to you as your strands of Webbing connected to buildings that you'd always seen in the distance at Queens and, sometimes, even got an up close and personal look at. Now though? Now you were soaring through the air, hands grasping at individual strands of Webbing as strong wind currents, focused by the size and shape of the buildings, blasted at you, requiring you to focus a bit more now that you were swinging through the most famous part of New York for the first time.  
  
'Don't look down Peter. Don't look down, don't look down, don't, aw dammit, I looked down!' You felt a bit dizzy looking at the streets beneath you but, despite your mental pleas... well, you had to look down. You had to keep an eye out for the skull guy or any sign of trouble. If you missed it just because the heights were making you feel a bit dizzy then... well, some superhero you'd turn out to be. So you kept looking, your eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of a dude in Matrix gear roaming around with guns. After several hours of this, by which time the sun had set, you swung into a building and, with a quick spin, managed to stick yourself to the side of it, just out of sight of one the windows. You brushed your arms together, a bit chilly from the stiff breeze up here, as you set to replacing your cartridges with fresh ones. Man, patrolling Manhattan was gonna take a toll on your supply...  
  
 **[*Yodeling!*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWao9izTMTw)**  
  
Oh good, that must've been Ned. You quickly pulled out your cell phone and raised your mask.  
  
"Talk to me."  
  
 _"Jeez, lot of interference over there. You in a tunnel or something?"  
_  
"Try about a hundred-and-fifty or so off the ground. That interference you're hearing is the wind."  
  
 _"Ouch man. You doing alright?"  
_  
"Eh, I'll adjust. Man, I knew Manhattan would be tricky to get around with Parkour but I've barely been able to manage it. The buildings are all pretty much too tall for me to get a good run in so I've just been having to Web Swing this entire time. I've already burnt through a whole cartridge in each hand."  
  
 _"Still got more though, right?"  
_  
"Yeah, enough foresight there, thankfully. Two more free cartridges after these ones are spent even. If I just keep swinging around I probably won't even spend them tonight." With that you sighed. "So, got any news for me or you just checking in?"  
  
 _"Well the good news is that there's been no sign of any huge shootouts in any of the broadcasts further south. So yeah, if he's been active anywhere tonight it'll probably be in your general area. Also good news; no shootouts in your area so far."  
_  
"That is good news. Means he hasn't killed anyone yet tonight." Yet. God, that word made your throat tense up so much. He hadn't killed anyone 'yet'. You still had a chance to stop a 'murder' from happening. Again, as anti-crook as you were, and as much as you would definitely try your best to catch whoever skull guy was trying to kill, they were still people and murdering them wasn't called for. If things were quiet then that meant you still had a chance... or that he just wasn't going to hit anywhere tonight.  
  
Guy was only human, after all. What if he took a direct hit and needed a couple nights to rest up and tend to himself?  
  
...  
  
Well, not like it mattered. You'd be out looking for him regardless. Well, time to-  
  
 ***bang*  
**  
Your head jerked to the side as the loud, ringing sound hit your ears. No way, was that...  
  
 _"Pete, what's up? I heard-"  
_  
"I'll call you back Ned." You quickly turned off your phone and put it back in your backpack before lowering your mask. Cartridges replaced you quickly started swinging to the source of the noise and found... "The... [the Guggenheim](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j5Q_Gj1ZwPNgLteZO3CVYvXh_tM=/0x105:2000x1230/1600x900/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55151101/gugg.0.jpg)?"  
  
The distinct, upside-down funnel shape of the Guggenheim filled your gaze as you quickly swung down toward it, dropping height between swing before you gave a mighty kick to propel yourself onto the rooftop. A quick look over the lip of the Guggenheim showed... a black van, parked out in front of the museum. The only vehicle currently parked around. You arched your eyebrows before heading back further onto the roof. No point in going in the front door to get spotted, might as well... use... a roof...  
  
Huh. The [central glass ceiling](https://www.nycgo.com/images/venues/185/guggenheim-museum-upper-east-side-manhattan-nyc-credit-david-heald-copyright-solomon-r-guggenheim-foundation-nyc-srgm_ph122__x_large.jpg) that brought so much natural light into the Guggenheim was there, right where you expected it'd be. It was where you were going to slip in and make your entrance. Of course you were worried about setting off an alarm on your way in but... well... that was until you noticed the huge, perfectly circular hole cut in the glass. You knelt down and ran the edge of your glove on the edge... perfectly flat, like it'd been cut clean. Obviously some thief had used a fancy set of tools...  
  
Between the van and this... the alarm must've been cut off. By who? Well... time to figure that out. You stuck your hands to the underside of the glass ceiling and crawled in, scoping out the scene of the Guggenheim as you tried to ascertain what was going on.  
  
 ***Bang!*  
**  
You flinch at the sound of gunfire being exchanged, ducking closer to the ceiling as you tilted your head... up? Down? Okay, point was, you were looking back down toward solid ground. Two men immediately jumped out at you; both dressed in black but both _definitely_ doing so for different occasions. On the one end... it was hard to tell from up here but he looked like an older man, white hair sticking out from underneath a black cap he was wearing. A bag was slung over his shoulder and in his hands were two guns. One looked like a normal pistol but the other... well, it was weird shaped around the firing part. You'd have to get a closer look to figure out what that was. On his back there was a cylinder with a cap on top, the kind of thing you'd seen paintings transferred in. Combined with the rest of this guy's black get up you had a feeling he was here to steal a painting...  
  
On the other hand...  
  
Well, he was dressed in all black and was prominently wielding a pistol of his own with a sawn-off shotgun placed carefully on his side, within his trench coat... but God, if you weren't confused about who this guy was for even a moment.  
  
Mostly because of the White Skull emblazoned on his chest.  
  
The skull guy.  
  
"Fuck, look, aren't people like me a little below your pay grade, asshole?! They've got this shit ensured!"  
  
It was hard but, with how close you were focusing, you could just barely make out what they were saying.  
  
"... It's not what you've got on you now, but what you've taken before. You've ruined lives, taken things people can never get back." A light curse of frustration from the thief as skull guy spoke. "Besides... word has it you know some people I'd very much like to get a chance to meet."  
  
Alright; stop the thief, get back the painting, keep him from getting killed, apprehend the skull guy, save the day, be a big time hero. Keep the collateral to a minimum while you were at it. Yep, those seemed like your objectives for today.  
  
This should be easy, right?

You take a moment. Take a breath. You close your eyes and just let the moment sink in. Time to save someone's life, you suppose. You opened your eyes and just unstuck, allowing yourself to drop from the glass ceiling. You dove down the central spiral of the Guggenheim, air whipping past your face as you made the drop. With a quick fwip of your wrist you immediately latch onto the third floor of the Guggenheim, using the Webbing to shift your momentum into a swing. Upon doing so, and upon getting a direct line into the first floor you fwip your other wrist out, firing a line of webbing into the first floor and onto a wall. For the briefest of moments both Skull and the thief's eyes are on that Web Line...  
  
"HEY, OUTSIDE OPINION?!" You shout out as you pull yourself forward, zipping feet first toward the skull. The man turns, just at the last moment, to see you coming as you slam both feet into his chest, causing him to release a gasping, choking breath as you literally knock him off his feet and send him into...  
  
Oh, the [Maman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Giant_spider_strikes_again%21.jpg/1280px-Giant_spider_strikes_again%21.jpg) was touring... er, no relation, of course.  
  
Well, the guy crashes into one of it's great legs, bending it upon impact as he winced from the pain, looking up at you with the same amount of shock and surprise as the thief, who just stared dumbfounded at your sudden entrance.  
  
"You're both terrible people, how about that?" You say with a flourish as you gracefully land on a nearby display case, your light footing evenly dispersing your way across it as you stood, dukes up and ready to fight as the scene unfolded. Still, it looked like you had a proper element of surprise, neither of them quite sure what to make of you.  
  
Good, that worked just fine as far as you were concerned.

  
"Hey, Skull guy! Please don't tell me this is some kind of elaborate Grunge Phase! It's really not a good look these days!" With that you immediately fire out both of your Web Shooters, aiming for the Skull's shotgun at his hip and the Thief's pistol in hand. You'd considered going for his weird looking gun which, upon closer inspection, looked like it had some kind of... triangular... something? At the end of it. However, you really needed to disarm these guys so that they couldn't do major damage. For Skull, that meant taking away his shotgun and for Thief that meant the bang-bang gun he seemed open to using. The pistol in Skull's hand was bad, sure, but it was better that you get that sawn-off nightmare at his side away from him before he blew you or the Thief away.  
  
Meanwhile you squatted down to build up some energy and then jumped, twisting your body mid-air so that you'd 'land' on the ceiling with your feet, your Wall Crawling powers kicking to let you hang upside down while you stuck their weapons to the ceiling. Good, that was the most dangerous of the stuff out of the way at least.  
  
Skull guy just seemed to look at you... completely and utterly perplexed. Like you weren't even real, despite having just struck him in the chest. Which, hey, fair enough. Probably not everyday that someone watches a superhero swing down out of nowhere, steal your gun with some Webbing he shot out of his wrist and then stick to a ceiling with just his feet. The guy just seemed to roll his tongue around for a moment, as if trying his best to piece you together... and, well... it kind of seems like he doesn't. Not right now at least. Which is a bit weird as you see him force himself up from the leg of the statue.  
  
You watch as he aims his pistol, causing you to flinch a bit as you get ready to dodge...  
  
Then he just casually swivels it in the Thief's direction.  
  
 ***Bang!**Bang!*  
**  
"FUCKING HELL, AAAAAAAAAGH!"  
  
Your eyes go wide under your goggles as you immediately look over at the Thief, the guy collapsing down onto the ground and crying out in pain as... yeesh! You get a bit queasy as you look at his left foot, a hole blown in his shoe that was just gushing blood as the man cried out in absolute, agonizing pain. You watched as he pitifully crawled across the floor, getting a few yards out toward the opening lip of the Guggenheim's center. The Skull guy took two shots at the Thief's left foot, one just barely missing as the Thief jerked out of reflex... with the other one he wasn't so lucky.  
  
"HEY, NO SHOOTING SKEET IN THE GUGGENHEIM!" Your nausea turns to purpose as you turn back to the Skull guy, Web Shooters aimed and ready.  
  
You fire out another two lines of Webbing a the guy and, to his credit, Skull does manage to jump out of the way of the first strand. You'd prepared for this and, with your second shot, you manage to tag his gun. From there it's actually pretty much child's play to rip it from his hand and stick it to the ceiling.  
  
"Seriously dude, what is your issue man?! That guy's foot has a vent going through it now!" You honestly felt bad that one of the quips you had lined up in your head was to refer to the guy as a fossil and that he was in the wrong type of museum. Jeez! Skull though... he just keeps staring at you, brow furrowed as he finally nods.  
  
"You... you ain't some random jackass crook are ya..." He muttered as he glanced up toward the part of the ceiling where you'd stuck all the guns.  
  
"You know, if I could hear you over the sound of you shooting someone in the foot I'd say that yeah, I'm the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."  
  
...  
  
Well, it finally gets a reaction out of the guy. He rolls his eyes and swears under his breath.  
  
"Jesus Christ. You're a fucking kid..." Hey!  
  
"Hey, I'm Spider- _Man_ , thank you very m **u-** uch..." Damn voice crack, why did you pick now to get so nervous...  
  
You mean, aside from the fact that some guy got shot in the foot and you were face to face with a serial murderer... you know what it was actually perfectly understandable that you were picking now to get nervous. The Skull guy just seemed to take this all in for a moment, looking between the guns on the ceiling, to you, to the Thief... and he just seems to sigh and shake his head.  
  
"Fuckin' Christ..." He grunts, rubbing his eyes as he pulls out that huge knife of his. Your eyes widen as you see it, remembering the old dude's story as you quickly get into a battle stance. If he thought he was going to move over to the Thief and slit his throat on your watch or that he was going to duel you with a knife, this guy had another thing-  
  
 ***CRACK*  
  
*BWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!*  
**  
Well... looks like he picked a third option. Skull walked over to a display case after grabbing his knife and, with one swift movement, slammed the handle of the knife into the display case, immediately shattering it and causing an alarm system within it to trigger, causing the entire building to go up! Well that sold it; Thief must've done something to the exterior alarms without deactivating the interior ones. Made sense, he probably didn't figure he'd do something like destroy a display case. Your eyes go wide under your goggles, your mouth dropping open beneath your mask as you just stare at the Skull as he keeps his knife out in the open, looking up at you.  
  
"It'll probably take the police just five minutes to show up with an alarm triggered. Still slow but, well, now they actually have a job to do." You watch him point the knife at you. "Word of advice; scurry. Playing hero or not, you're a vigilante to them."  
  
...  
  
You...  
  
He...  
  
Wha...  
  
"YOU DICK!" You cry out, unable to verbalize your surprise in any other way as you tensed up. "You know what, whatever. That's fine, this is fine, it's all fine! I don't need five minutes to web you a wall!" The guy rolls his eyes, spinning his knife around into a defensive posture. As you both get ready though...  
  
"... You know what... fuck you both... I'm out of here." The tired voice of the Thief rings out behind you, causing you and the Skull to look back at him as he aims his weird gun for the glass ceiling of the Guggenheim. He pulls the trigger, a blast erupts and...  
  
Oh...  
  
[Oh no](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-dbe3e/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/916/3297/Folding_Grappler_3A__00000.1455318760.jpg?c=2&imbypass=on).  
  
"Are you kidding me?!"  
  
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"  
  
You and Skull shout practically at the same time as the guy launches his FRIGGIN GRAPPLING HOOK and immediately zips up towards the glass ceiling. You strain to get a good look, the guy being carried by the mechanisms in his gun all the way to the top. Damn, that thing had some serious horsepower and range to it. It looked like it got even better distance than your Web Shooters at the moment. As he got up there you groaned; well, the good news was that with his foot the way it was he technically couldn't run away. You'd still be able to catch him, right? Even if he climbed up the hole he made and-  
  
"AGH, FUCK, MY FOOT!"  
  
Oh, right.  
  
For the third time tonight your eyes went wide behind your goggles as the Thief tried his best to kick his leg up over the hole he made, crying out in pain as his foot caught barely, bleeding over the glass before he tumbled back into the building, barely holding onto the edge of the glass ceiling. If... if he didn't hold on, he'd drop all seven flights down to the hard concrete floor.  
  
Your heart, for a moment, stopped. You couldn't web up to him from here but... if you got a good jump in you could reach him before he'd have a chance to slip and fall. But... but that'd put you in a hard position to catch the Skull...  
  
Well, you weren't back at home for Aunt May to hear you, you guess.  
  
"Shit..."

You took a deep breath, you released it. Saving the Thief's life was the priority, that's all there was to it. You didn't get into the superhero gig to stop criminals on it's own; you got into it to help people and make their lives better. Criminal or not, you'd have a pretty crummy black mark on your record if you let this guy fall to his death. One that you wouldn't quite forgive yourself for, you reckon. However, you were also here to stop a murderer from continuing on his spree, from continuing on his rampage across New York City. You didn't just want to stop him, you had to, to keep other people from dying.  
  
So you made a decision; save a life, catch the thief, stop the murderer. That was your hat trick and you were going to pull it off. So you sprinted forward on the ceiling, the odd vertigo of running upside down with your Wall Crawling momentarily absent from your thoughts as you got ready to put on a show. As you crossed the threshold between the ceiling and the open air you quickly planted your foot on the other end of the lip, standing now perpendicular with the ground. With a grunt of effort you pressed off and sent your entire body up and out, trying your best to close the distance between you and the Thief while also keeping Skull in your reach...  
  
A moment of brilliance strikes you as you spin in mid-air... rather than trying to right yourself into an upright position to get closer to the Thief, you spun back upside down, the world a blur of flipped visions and paintings as, finally, you reached the apex of your jump and the perfect position in the middle of the Guggenheim's open area. You gasped, kicking your legs out to try and disperse your momentum as both your hands flew out; one right to your side aiming at the Skull and one 'down' from you, pointing toward the glass ceiling where the Thief was barely holding on.  
  
You take a deep breath...  
  
And you fire.  
  
You watch the strand heading for Skull; he was closer so it'd reach him first. You had to see, you had to know if your risk paid dividends. The Skull, however, saw the strand coming and with surprising speed managed to duck out of the way of it, the strand slapping into the _Maman_ before you ended up cutting the Web Line yourself. You furrowed your brow and cursed under your breath; risk made and risk fumbled. Your eyes turned skyward; now you could only hope that the risk wouldn't end up costing the Thief. Your heart raced, your lungs greedily sucked in air, as you watched the second strand ascend. It was such a close run thing. The strand was stretching and stretching, it's momentum slowing and slowing as it lost its energy, lost its forward thrust from the initial blast. For a moment, you feel your chest tighten in fear; it's not gonna hit. It's gonna be too short. You failed...  
  
...  
  
Then, there, at the last second, you feel that familiar vibration run through your arm as your body falls but the Webbing just stretches.  
  
It hit its mark.  
  
It stuck to the glass ceiling.  
  
Without even thinking you give gravity a hand, giving a mighty pull on the Webbing in order to help build up energy in the chord... then, all at once, you go slack and let the Web Line carry you up, pulling you as it tightened all at once in order to release the built up pressure and energy in its bonds. You cry out, a joyous laughter erupting from your chest as you immediately soared up and toward the ceiling. The Thief's eyes go wide as he tenses, bracing himself for your arrival. You just give a quick tuck and spin in the air, twisting your body around so that you'll be perpendicular with the ceiling...  
  
And then you do it. You catch him! Your body pushes him up as your fingers and toes catch your weight and momentum against the glass, carefully dispersing it as you Wall Crawl onto it, sticking with all your might as you pretty much wrap an arm almost immediately around the Thief at the same time.  
  
"Hey, word of advice, I'd suggest you go ahead and just let me save you." You grunted, out of some frustration but also, you'll admit, a poorly placed attempt at sounding intimidating. The Thief just looked down at the floor of the Guggenheim seven floors down, concrete and cold, before he looked over at you, his wrinkled face worked up into a fearful visage.  
  
"... Yeah... okay." You sigh in relief as, at the very least, this part seems like it'll go over easy. You quickly Wall Crawl with the Thief in hand, moving easily through the glass hole he'd cut for himself earlier. By now the blaring alarms of the Guggenheim are just distant echoes as you work yourself up onto the roof proper, keeping a firm hold on the Thief as you take notice of the building's central air and heating system up top. "... So, what are the odds you'll be a good young man and let this old coot go with a warning?"  
  
...  
  
 ***fwip-fwip**fwip-fwip*  
**  
"I'm gonna say... not good." You dust off your hands as you finish webbing his arms to the side of the air unit, the man struggling in vain against the double layer of Webbing as you looked him over. "Now then... with that foot, you're no going anywhere. Especially not without this." You hold up his grappling hook and, momentarily, pocket it. "So I suggest you wait here and make yourself comfy while I look for big, dark and scary." The old man just grimaced at you, a slight glare to his look but... well, between you having his grappling hook and him being Webbed up, it seems like he accepts that his goose is cooked. That hole in his foot was probably doing him no favors in that regard either.  
  
That just left you with the world's most tense game of _Where's Waldo_ to play.  
  
"Okay... here... Skull, Skull, Skull? Come here boy, got a tasty crook for you." You muttered this to yourself as you quickly leaped over to a ledge of the Guggenheim, using a bird's eye view to try and scout out the situation and spot the guy. Your eyes narrowed behind your goggles as you looked around, trying your best to try to find... a black shape in the middle of the night outside of a closed museum.  
  
Oh perfect.  
  
You didn't give up upon having that thought, no, you were probably just a bit too stubborn for that. Still, it didn't take you long of searching dark streets and dark street corners and trying to look into dark alleys, even looking around at other sides of the building very quickly, to realize... yeah, you weren't finding him like this.  
  
Or...  
  
"Agh... wait, no. That black van out front. Gotta be how he got here right? Goes with his clothes and everything. Seems like the sort of fashion conscious guy who'd match his van to his own coat's color, right?" You mumbled to yourself as you keyed into this last shot, this really long shot last shot you'd admit. You quickly swung down to the black van parked out from of the Guggenheim and immediately started looking through it... old sandwich wrappers, no keys...  
  
Well, you still could take a good guess it was his car. The gun rack on the side of the van's interior certainly gave you that much confidence...  
  
But he was nowhere around here and nowhere in sight. You just grumbled to yourself, shaking your head. Ah well, take the license plate number and hope you could use that later, Spidey...  
  
...  
  
"AGH! Darn it!" You beat your head lightly against the side of the van, just barely holding back a cuss as you groaned a bit. You can't believe this, you honestly can't believe this. That asshole, that dick! He triggered the alarms and then used the old guy trying to get away as the distraction he needed to get on the move himself! He was long gone now! He didn't come back for his van... Hell, why would he? He had the keys on him! You groan a bit, rubbing at your forehead as you noticed you left a small dent in the van. Ah well, a little dent in his vehicle and some bruises on his ribs, whatever, least that guy had coming to him...  
  
Agh! You were so gonna apprehend him! So gonna put a stop to his crime spree and save lives! Now here you were, the police minutes away and with no crazy murderous vigilante to hang up and let them find while you swung off...  
  
"Okay Pete... chill the Hell out..." You took a deep breath and did your best to compose yourself. True, absolutely true. You didn't have that... but you did save someone's life... and that someone happened to be some thief that the Skull found fit enough to hunt down. Someone he wanted to ask a question of...  
  
So it wasn't the hat trick you wanted. Two out of three wasn't bad... especially if this guy could fill you in on something. You quickly zipped back up the Guggenheim, dropping onto the edge of the roof into a crouching position that left you, roughly, face to face with the Thief who was still just kind of hanging out where you left him. You grimaced a bit and were honestly thankful that it was hidden behind the mask. Time for your runner-up prize you suppose... trying to figure out just what this guy could, or would, tell you about tonight.

You sigh a bit as you stand straight up, rolling out your neck. In all honesty, it had been a long night... heck, a long week. School, patrolling the Bronx and now hunting down Skull, it had taken a bit out of you. Heck, Web Swinging around Manhattan had turned out to be a nifty little experience in and of itself, equally fun and exciting and stressful and tiring. Plus... well, now you were pressed for time. So you didn't go for anything fancy or long. You were going to keep this short and get straight to your point.  
  
"Guess you're really not in the mood to talk right now huh?" You watch the Thief scoff as you nodded. "That's fair. Me? I'm a little pressed for time myself." You casually stroll on over to him, not bothering to try to be real threatening with the Thief as you approached him. He was stuck, he knew it... but he probably also knew you weren't going to hurt him given who you just saved him from. So no need to come off like you were trying to be threatening, you weren't. "So how's about we just cut to the chase huh? After tonight I can't imagine you want him on the loose anymore than I do considering, you know."  
  
You point down to his bleeding foot, causing the guy to growl at you, very much annoyed, before you raise your hands defensively.  
  
"Woah, woah, woah. Easy there fella. All I'm saying is that anything you might be able to tell me about big, mean and scary could help a lot."  
  
"... You know what?" You watch the Thief spit to the side, a surly tone to his voice as he looked back at you. "Fuck him, right? Not like I should be doing him any favors." The Thief shook his head as he cleared his throat, the cold night air likely not doing him much favors. "You want to know something about that creep? Try this on for size; his name's Frank Castle."  
  
Frank Castle? Well, that was certainly one Hell of a name right there.  
  
"How do you know his name? From what I heard the police have no idea he's even behind this, the news has been reporting this all as a gang war." The Thief chuckled a bit, giving you a bit of a smirk.  
  
"Pretty hard not to know who this guy is considering he was fitted neatly into the center of a very important crosshair a while back. From what I've been able to tell most people who don't talk to street level cronies know who Frank Castle is and why exactly he's so pissed off with the illustrious criminals of this fine city." You furrow your brow beneath your mask as you lean forward a bit.  
  
"Don't suppose you'd know why exactly he's taken to blowing the heads off of random criminals he comes across?" The Thief shrugs his shoulders.  
  
"Beats the Hell out of me. I just heard he got into a bit of trouble with some important people and needed to be taken care of. Didn't pursue it much more than that; you see, I'm not in the business of getting too bogged down in the small details of who I'm after or who I need to keep an eye out on. Useless baggage you learn to leave behind sooner rather than later."  
  
"Oh well, aren't you the picture of the consummate professional." You say with a roll of your eyes as the old guy just chuckled  
  
"Damn straight." He said with an amused grin while you just lightly glared at him from behind your goggles.  
  
"Don't suppose you've got anymore useful tidbits?" Again, the older man just laughed at you.  
  
"Kid if my employers did trust me, Frank Castle would be dead within the hour. Fact is that he's good. We only know it's him because of some camera footage." You furrow your brow at that; footage? Then wouldn't the police or the media...  
  
Wait.  
  
"Your footage." You say with a grimace as he grins.  
  
"Now you're getting the picture." The man relaxed a bit, trying to take the pressure off of his arms. "That's about all I have for you ya brat. Now... how about you be a good little Samaritan and let me down in exchange for this information. Seems like a fair trade, right?"  
  
...  
  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"You know what. I actually have a better idea."  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT! OOOOH! I PROMISE YOU, WHEN THEY GET THEIR HANDS ON YOU OR SEND THE ENFORCERS TO STOMP YOU OUT, YOU'RE GONNA GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU, YOU JUMPED-UP LITTLE-MMMMMMMPH!"  
  
"Finally. Man I should've started with that. Don't know what I was thinking." You admired your handiwork as you finished replacing your empty cartridges with your last full set. The tube with the painting still safely stored inside was hanging from a nearly ledge, dangling next to the would be art thief, said Thief now entirely covered from neck to toe in Webbing as he was stuck to the wall of the Guggenheim, much like a work of art himself. His equipment was webbed up near him, ready to be handed over into police custody and then, finally, your last second addition to this masterpiece; a bit of Webbing shot at his mouth to keep it shut. Not on his nose of course, you didn't want this guy to suffocate, but man were you tired of him yelling at you.  
  
So... Frank Castle huh? Not a lot to go on but, hey, a name and a license plate was a good enough place to start. Still, you could look into it later... for now those police sirens were getting awfully close and, man, were you just feeling beat. Time to get home and get some rest. With a quick flick of your wrist you fire out a line of Webbing and immediately get back to swinging...  
  
You know? As much as you had to get used to Web Swinging around Manhattan... you weren't gonna deny-  
  
"WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!"  
  
It was a pretty good time. Hey, what better way to celebrate saving a guy's life than with a little Web Swinging. Sure, Castle got away but there was always next time... and you did stop him. All in all, you'd say you'd done well for yourself.


	14. Outtake 1: The Punisher

"WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!"

Frank Castle paused in his slow march away from the Guggenheim, eyes momentarily trailing toward the sky. He needed information; was he coming his way or going away? Did he need to duck a corner and get ready for a last desperate brawl or was this the sign that he'd gotten away clean. He narrowed his gaze, trying to pick that brightly colored spot out of the New York skyline... and he did. He watched as the kid swung away on those webs of his, firing form his wrists like Hardy's grappling hook as he literally swung away from the Guggenheim, loudly cheering as he did.

And away from him, thankfully...

Spider-Man.

...

"I mean Spider-Man? Really?"

Frank groaned a bit, the effort of actually talking causing his ribs to groan in pain. Bruised at the very least, potentially broken. His back wasn't so solid either now that the adrenaline was dying down. Couldn't go back for his van; chance that the kid was baiting him, waiting for him to come back. Besides, sirens said that the police were on their way. Stick to the plan... walk the distance back to his brand new hideaway in Harlem. From there he'd have a stiff drink, some pain killers... and then maybe he'd be able to think all this shit through.

Spider-Man. A kid who couldn't have been old enough to fucking drive nosedived from out of nowhere, swung like an acrobat to kick the shit out of his ribs, knocking him into some work of art that was probably worth all the money Frank had ever earned in his life and then... shit. Those webs that fired out of his wrists. What the Hell were they? How... hrmmm... that hand motion, that double tap... could it have been-

Frank coughed into his fist... no blood but all this walking and deep breathing was just wracking his body with pain. Had to focus on his breathing so he didn't end up accidentally making things worse. Turns out, the people of New York at night were just as disinterested in regarding or talking to people as they were in the day. City that never slept and everyone seemed to have some place to go. Suited him just fine; meant they ignored the guy dressed in all black holding his ribs like he just busted them. Then again, Maria did say he could be intimidating.

He finally arrived in Harlem and, a few rough turns here, a few tight spots there, he managed to get to his 'hideout'. A shitty little drug den that was being run by a few dealers. Surprisingly well armed all things considered; then again, they also seemed to recognize his symbol so, hey, they were prepared at least. It still had electricity and some running water, no gas though. Suited him just fine; so long as he kept up the payments to the landlord he didn't ask questions and Frank really didn't need a nicety like hot water...

Though, fuck, if that didn't sound nice on his back and ribs right about now.

Frank unlocked the door and closed it behind him, twisting the knob on the lightly bloodspattered lock to keep it shut behind him. The bodies he'd managed to dump into the Harlem River not too long ago, hadn't heard word or report yet as to whether they'd be found. The viscera, likewise, had been easy to get rid of... didn't much care about the blood. To be frank there was worse shit in this building than a couple bloodstains and he doubted anyone would notice. He dropped his keys onto a nearby table when he entered, for lack of a better word, the living room. He'd transformed it into his own miniature war room as he moved his operations here; the guns he'd collected were hung up properly on the wall, though now there'd be two empty spaces on that wall, a map of the city laid out on a table and a notebook on the side with some chicken scratch about the various intel he'd been able to collect.

Frank wandered into the attached kitchen and a nearby bathroom and rummaged through it. Knowing druggies... aha. Painkillers and some whiskey. The Field Doctor special. He rummaged through his own supplies... some bandages and splints in case he'd need to keep himself good and straight for a while. Frank disrobed, dumping his painted Kevlar next to the comfy chair these assholes probably dragged in here from some other house and threw his shirt... somewhere. He didn't pay much mind. Trench coat he left on the back of the chair and Frank got to work inspecting the damage...

Two big dumb footprints on his chest.

Some slight bruises around his ribs...

Light bruise on his back...

...

.....

........

Alright... nothing broken or slipped out of place.

Good.

Frank quickly popped a couple painkillers and downed them with a shot of whiskey. He gasped, the burning sensation carrying the meds down as be prepared another shot-

 _"-one shot's good to help numb ya up, but remember soldier; booze and pills don't mix."_  
  
Fucking God dammit.

Frank slowly shifted around until he could collapse in the comfy chair, groaning in relief and slight pain as he just laid back, whiskey bottle left behind as he left the rest to the meds. He settled in, sighing slightly as one word left his mouth.

"Fuck."

Spider-Man.

Some red, white and blue clad super-something just jumped out of nowhere to stop him from interrogating Hardy for everything he knew before putting an end to that rat bastard's life. Someone who could make those jumps and could go that fast, zipping on webs and pulling guns out of hands. That webbing too; it seemed like strong stuff, judging from the way it was able to hold the kid's weight. Also, you know, _he stuck upside from the fucking ceiling like a Goddamn insect._

Ain't no way it was the digs either; kid looked like he had on a bad Halloween Costume. No way that shit was pulling off most of those tricks. Nah... this one was just... super.

A fucking superhero stopped him from killing someone. Tried to catch him and did successfully catch Hardy.

Were you fucking kidding him?

Frank shook his head... the last time he heard of a super anything was so long ago now, or at least felt it... all the way back...

A projector powered up, blasting an image across the open canvas on the wall across from him. Frank narrowed his gaze in confusion, rising out of his stupid as he slowly sat up to get a better view of it. A screen displaying the logo of the United States Office of War Information suddenly appeared on the screen as a [song started to play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iiUG5sDo1U)...

_**"This is your war! This is my war! This is our war and we've got to win!** _

_**This is your job! This is my job! This is our job and we've got to win!** _

_**If you can't go over there, buy more bonds do your share!** _

_**Buy the bonds that buy the guns and keep fighting till we've won!"** _

_The singing died down even as the music continued to play as a man, dressed from top to bottom in red, white and blue... though, that would've been hard to tell with the black and white color of the video. A bright smile on his face, full of pride and vigor as he saluted the camera, placing a knee on a random bit of rock in the middle of the set while displaying that iconic shield._

_**"Hello there soldiers. Captain Steve Rogers here... though, maybe you know me better as Captain America."** A thick Brooklyn accent that seemed to sing as he spoke rang out as the man on the screen saluted Frank and his gathered fellow jarheads. **"Today, I'm not here to talk to you about the various battlefields you're about to go and see. Not about the battles that you'll fight with guns and grenades... but the battles you'll fight with your words and actions."** Cap took his leg off the rock as he turned to fully face the camera. **"Boys; you'll be America's face to the suffering peoples of the theaters you'll be deployed to. Whether it be Belgium or the Philippines, it'll be your duty to show the best face of Democracy, Freedom and these United States of America to the people forced to suffer under the jackboots of the Axis Powers.**_

_**"Now fellas, trust me, as a boy who grew up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn, I know what kind of behavior young, strapping fellas like us can get up to. I'll keep it pretty simple; if it wouldn't have made your mother proud if you did it at home, then don't do it out there when winning this war."** _

_"Well I don't know about you Cap, but I tend to find that it's kind of hard to make someone who doesn't exist ashamed." Frank scoffed a bit, chuckling in amusement as he looked to his side. A handsome son of a bitch, if he did say so himself, was seated next to him, a wry grin on his face as they both sat watching this old reel. "Kind of crazy they're still showing these reels, yeah?" The marine asked Frank, who just casually shrugged as he scratched the back of his head._

_"I don't fuckin' know man. It's the Cap, kind of hard to throw out a classic like that." The guy just snorted a bit as he shrugged his shoulders._

_"I suppose. I dunno, just feels like they should've picked a reel that didn't explicitly name out much nicer places we could be going to rather than to the world's asshole." Frank nodded; Belgium and the Philippines did sound a lot nicer than Iraq, he couldn't lie. "Billy Russo, New York City."_

_"Frank Castle, same."_

_"No shit? Well then, guess I'll have to get a bit more specific. East Village."_

_"South Jamaica."_

_"Oh ho! Queens huh? Yeah you sound it." Frank chuckled as Billy turned back to the screen, Captain America still going on about something or another. "You know you hear all these good ol' Southern Boys talk and you give up hope of finding someone who sounds like they know how to read." Frank nodded slowly, missing the slight smirk working its way up Billy's face. "I mean I'll have to keep looking but it's good to hear from a fellow New Yorker at least."_

_"Fuckin'." Billy leaned away from the punch Frank threw into his shoulder, the pair still grinning as they kept their eyes forward at least, so as not to raise the ire of the superiors._

_"Well now that introductions are out of the way Frankie boy, I have a proposition for you." Frank looked over at Billy, the guy grinning ear to ear as he looked around. "If we're gonna be heading to give old Hussein a kick in the ass, well, I don't see why we have to hang out with complete strangers to do it."_

_"Oh and we're not complete strangers?" Frank asked, sarcastic as Billy chuckled._

_"Hell man you heard old Rudy Tooty Fresh and Fruity, we're all New Yorkers, right?"_

_"Pretty sure he was referring to the entire damn country."_

_"Fuckin' whatever you get what I mean. I find a good friendly face in a crowd and I'm sure as Hell stickin' to it."_

_"Friendly face huh?" Frank asked, incredulous, as he licked the back of his teeth. "My folk might have something to say about that." Billy laughed, earning a quick reprimand from a superior as the young man quickly silenced himself._

_"I mean it though. Could always use a friend in the field. Why the Hell not; what you got to lose?"_

_..._

_Fuck it._

_"Sure, why not." With that Billy laughed as he jostled Frank's shoulder, earning and amused grin as he looked back at the projector. Captain America. The Symbol of the Ideal American Soldier. Strong, capable, just, kind, always in the right. Capable of winning a war single-handedly while still looking like some fresh faced angel. To Frank, it wasn't a wonder that they showed the world's only real Superhero, the guy who inspired the 'Truth, Justice and The American Way' in Superman. After all... wasn't Cap the guy every soldier aspired to be? Including himself..._

_Hell. Isn't that why he signed up?_

_Billy jostled his shoulder again and Frank waved him off. At this point he was kind of into it and didn't want his focus taken off of the bright light._

_"Frankie! Look at me!" He jostled Frank again as, suddenly, a piercing headache came over Frank. Fuck... what the Hell happened? Frank grabbed onto his head and immediately pulled his hand back, drenched in blood. Choking, Frank turned over to look at Billy, dressed in one of those fancy suits that prick loved to wear around town. Blood was splattered on his face as he shook him, Billy seeming desperate as he lightly slapped at Frank's face. "That's it Frankie, that's it! Keep looking at me buddy, the ambulance is gonna be here soon Frankie!" Ambulance? But... what... Frank looked around, trying to see the other jarheads, trying to see the Captain as Steven Rogers extolled him to be a better soldier..._

_Instead he only saw one thing._

_The carousel._

_No._

_God no._

_Please._

_Not again._

_Frank let his head fall to his side... and saw a mess of beautiful golden hair, stained red with blood. Another head of golden hair was further off, collapsed and face down on the ground. Next to it was his boy..._

_He watched those brown eyes stare at him... watched her reach out to him, desperately trying to take his hand..._

_Then he watched the light fade out of those eyes._

_Forever.  
_  
Frank started, immediately kicking himself out of the chair as he got up, fight instincts kicked into him by the military forcing him up and ready to put down... nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Frank Castle wasn't surrounded by thugs hired out to kill him and his family. Frank Castle wasn't at a park surrounded by the people he loved most in the world.

He was in a shitty fucking tenement in the ass-end of Harlem trying to figure out what he was going to do about some fucking superhero stomping around looking for him...

...

Frank forced himself to relax, dragging his hands across his face and through his hair as he walked over to the table. The pills and whiskey had knocked him out while they did their job; his ribs didn't hurt as much. Now he could actually think about how to get this asshole kid out of his way. So long as he was around Frank couldn't go around committing to his big plans as far as his war was concerned. If he stomped up too much dirt then that kid would be around to try and get him arrested again. He needed to think of a way to... to...

...

Fuck it.

Fuckin' color scheme...

Fucking superheroes...

...

Frank sighed as he got to work in his notebook, coming up with ideas that'd keep the kid out of his hair in the future. He needed a way to keep the kid distracted long enough for him to do his job and then get out. There was a difference. A difference between Justice and Punishment. This kid might've been some naive little shit running around in the red, white and blue thinking he could hand out the former without killing anyone...

But someone like that. The honest to goodness first superhero that Frank had seen since watching those old WWII propaganda reels?

Someone like that didn't deserve Frank's brand of Punishment.

...

Tear gas maybe?

...

Table that idea.


	15. Outtake 2: The Cat

It was the hair people tended to notice first.

She didn't say this out of some desire to be noticed for something else or to give that faux sense of humility that other pretty young women might. She was pretty, or at least pretty enough, judging by the looks she sometimes got and by her own judgement. However, her hair stood out as an unusual feature to a lot of people, with that sort of lingering mystery that got people's minds wandering. The Hardy hair, as she liked to refer to it; so light blonde that it might as well have been white... and, some days, she was pretty certain for coming down to say that her hair was as white as her old man's. Still, it got people's attention and got them curious enough to pay attention. She just wished that it wasn't here and now of all times...

Not when she was going to visit her father in lock up.

Felicia Hardy rubbed her arms a bit as she strode through the police station, just looking to get to the back to speak to her old man. She was dressed pretty comfortable for the weather; long pants, a jacket, some shoes. Simple stuff; the Hardys weren't exactly a rich family, as her father's rent controlled two bedroom, one bathroom apartment would scream at you all but, well, they had enough she supposed... or, at least, 'enough' for what she understood concerning life as the daughter of one of the most infamous and skilled cat burglars in New York City. 'Homeschooled', if you wanted to call being trained by her father in how to defend herself and how to do the family business homeschooling, and protected from New York's elements both legal and criminal, Felicia Hardy didn't have much outside of that small circle of an apartment. She knew her neighbors well enough and she saw enough of the world through the various screens she viewed them through. The thing that she had that she knew best was her father, Walter Hardy...

And tonight Frank Castle had very nearly killed him. At the very least he'd put a hole in her father's foot.

Felicia was guided to take a seat, the chair metal and plastic as she waited in the heated room for her father to arrive. It'd been rather harrowing getting that phone call. Not from the police, or at least, the 'actual' cops, but from the connections her father had earned through years of working through New York's criminal elite. He'd nearly died, he was going to be imprisoned and he needed to talk to Felicia right now. She took a deep, shaken breath as she looked around the largely empty room, having been guided to a small little corner of it away from the other people having their visitation, presumably to help give the pair a little room for privacy...

She didn't need to guess who was coming when she heard the loud sound of thudding against the paneled floor. It wasn't a familiar sound by any means but, having heard what happened to her father, she could imagine what was making that sound. Sure enough, stumbling in on a crutch and with a cast wrapped around his wounded foot, Walter Hardy moseyed on in, having a seat right across from her as the two shared a glance. Green and black eyes met for a moment as the pair looked at each other. Felicia sighed, somewhat in relief but more in annoyance, as she grinned at her father.

"Well I don't suppose this'll do much for your dancing hobby, right?"

It wasn't that she hated her old man.

"Fuckin' Christ, really?"

Honestly, he was the only thing she really knew when her mother left and decided to leave her dear sweet little girl in the care of her criminal father.

"What? Figured it'd be best to open up with a joke. Figured we'd both worried enough tonight already."

But well, you know what they say; familiarity breeds contempt. What seventeen year old didn't love a life mostly lived moving from crappy apartment to crappy apartment in New York City with only some streaming and the occasional access to cable as their major source of fun where her father spent most nights out robbing people blind or releasing the New York Elites' dirtiest, darkest secrets?

"Be fuckin' serious Felicia, we're in the shit right now and I need you to pay attention."

"I'm paying attention. I'm just saying, a little levity considering the good luck here is-"

"Good luck?"

Felicia buttoned her lip, she knew that tone.

"I've got a bullet in my foot thanks to that psycho Frank Castle tracking me down, probably thanks to some numbnut who spilled about me before getting a load of lead to the head. Even if I got away clean I'd probably be in the hospital for months before I'd be able to go back out and work any job that they'd be willing to give me-" Oh no, what a tragedy. The cat burglar finally forced to sit his old ass down and retire, what a grave loss to the criminal empire of New York City, "-but worse than that I finally got caught! Can't believe this... can't friggin' believe this."

...

"Well... you were getting on dad. You started carrying around that piece for a reason right? Maybe..." Felicia started, trying to frame her internal monologue in a way that wouldn't-

"Hey, I'm still faster and better than half the new blood running in this town. The fact that the Big Man keeps sending guys to give me work is proof enough of that." -make him start going on about this. "In fact that's what is gonna get me the Hell out of here. I'm not gonna be in here for too long... Big Man will bail me out any day now. Too valuable for him to let me go to prison. He'll pay my bail and then we'll get stirred back up in NYC. If we keep still they won't find us."

Oh good, more sitting around in a different crappy apartment. A shame; she was actually starting to like some of the other tenants in their current building.

"Then everything's gonna be golden again. I'll get back to work and I can get back to making our living." Right, right. Felicia sighed as she waited to hear exactly what part she was going to be playing in this whole affair while her dad waited on bail. "... Tell you what. That fuckin' freak responsible for this? Spider-Man or whatever his name is? Gonna enjoy watching him get strung up by the Enforcers when it goes down. Hope I'm out on bail in time to see it."

...

......

.........

"... Don't you think you should be a little thankful?"

"... Excuse me?"

That's right. The second piece of this little puzzle that her dad had been going on about. The infamous cat burglar hadn't gotten away from the big bad Castle on his own. Hadn't even avoided getting shot by him before getting caught. No, if Frank Castle had his way Walter Hardy would've been a bloodstain on the floor of the Guggenheim. The only reason why her dad was alive right now, the only reason he could go on blustering about the Big Man and how he was going to bail him out... was because some honest to God superhero calling himself 'The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man' jumped in from out of nowhere and scared big, dark and scary off.

Right now Felicia would be, for all intents and purposes, an orphan if it wasn't for this guy swinging around on webs of all things, if her dad's story was to be believed. Old as he might be, he wasn't senile or careless with details either.

"I'm just saying... if this Spider-Man hadn't been around, you'd probably be another mark on Frank Castle's belt. Maybe, you know... just..." Felicia watched as her dad leaned forward and stared her in the eyes, causing her to glance off to the side.

"Felicia, darlin'... you look me in the eyes and you tell me if I should be thankful that some punk kid ended up getting me shot in the foot by Frank Castle and then handed me over to the cops to be thrown in jail. You tell me if that's what you really think. That you honestly think I should be thanking some little bastard like that?"

Yes, you asshole.

...

"No, you're right, sorry." Felicia went back to looking her father in the eye, the elder Hardy just nodding as he leaned back.

"Thank you. Now... the police will try looking through my accounts for any of the money I've stashed away from my jobs. The Big Man's already transferred my accounts over to you so they won't find them." Both Hardys glanced around, the expert thief and his well trained daughter easily working in motion as they quickly exchanged a piece of paper between them in the blink of an eye, the motions minute and the paper in and out of sight in seconds. "The account details. You can check the amount online. Now don't go crazy; this ain't just money to wait for me to get bailed out. This is money for me to use while my foot's getting healed up before I can go back to work. Don't go spending it on stupid stuff."

So don't spend it on anything he wasn't already spending money on. Oh well. There was still bound to be something on Netflix she hadn't seen or torrented yet.

"Course." The two exchanged careful nods, Walter extending a hand out to take hers as he softened his look a bit.

"Love you Felicia. You stay safe now. Trust me, I'll be out soon."

...

God dammit...

"Love you too dad." They both gripped the other's hand as they stood up, Walter being guided back out to the holding cells while Felicia was escorted back to the front of the station. Her dad might've been a royal prick but... well... he did work to support them both, in his own fucked up way. He did care. She at least had to give him that, right? As Felicia exited the police station, the cold fall wind blowing in her hair, the young woman sighed as she pulled out her phone and opened a browser. Might as well see what kind of budget she'd have to work with over the next few days... or Hell, what budget they'd be working with once her dad was out of prison. It was gonna be rough with him not being able to work but... well, who knows. Maybe her dad had been smart enough to put away enough money for a rainy day like this.

Just had to punch in the account details...

...

Huh... she... must've accidentally accessed the wrong account. It was funny, sure, that the little trainee thief had managed to get access to someone else's account details by pure accident but she needed her account's details so she could figure out what she was going to do.

Punch them in again...

...

......

.........

That...

That was her account...

...

That was... that was a lot of zeroes...

Like a lot of zeroes...

That...

That.

THAT!

"THAT ASSHOLE!" Felicia screamed, momentarily drawing the attention of the crowd around her before she composed herself, walking off at full speed as she looked down at the screen before her.

Needed to work his fucking ass! Look at all this fucking money! There was a dragon's hoard of wealth stored on here?! Had he had this all along?! Fucking clearly if she could access all this now just because 'The Big Man' transferred it her way.

Holy Fuck.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

Why were they living like they were?! Hell, with this money her dad could've just safely invested some of it away in the stock market and they'd be set for life! Bull shit he couldn't retire...

God dammit!

All this time, all this time.

...

Okay, well, good news Felicia. Time for a little payback. She could... she could...

What. Spend it on some random trash? Rent out some penthouse suite and stay there until he popped out of prison? Buy some luxurious clothes or jewels? That might be nice for a kick but... then what?

...

Felicia realized that... for all this money she had now... she... didn't really have much to do with it. No friends, no school except what tutors could occasionally be brought in or what her dad would train her to do. No life outside of what few connections she made in the apartment buildings they lived in. Hell, she didn't even know that much about what was hip or cool with people her age outside of fucking television. She'd been sheltered by a father who...

Who treated her like she was part of this massive pile of wealth he'd gathered. Something to be shunted off and guarded.

Ugh...

Fucking...

Felicia sighed, smacking herself in the forehead as she shook her head.

Great.

Just perfect.

...

......

.........

Well...

Felicia paused for a moment, stopping her walk as she looked back down at the screen.

Maybe...

Maybe Felicia Hardy couldn't do anything with this money. Maybe Felicia Hardy had no friends, no existence outside of the limited space her father's criminal life allowed...

No life, essentially...

But...

Maybe the one thing Felicia Hardy could do with all this money was...

Be someone who could...

Be whoever she wanted to be.

Be someone completely different from Felicia Hardy...

...

A wry grin formed on Felicia's lips as she turned off her phone, pocketing it as she strode forward into the night...

She had some calls to make.


	16. Outtake 3: The Hammer

It wasn't a long drive, but it was a little out of the way.  
  
He preferred it that way though; when the boss had a little free time on his hands, away from teaching his daughter about how the family business worked, away from keeping the various gangs and cliques of New York's Crime Scene held together and, more importantly, held under, away from even his public face that kept New York City utterly unaware that there was a Big Man and that the crime that had infested New York since the 70s never really went away... well. He liked to spend that little bit of time here. Back in Little Italy. The place might've been fancy stores, restaurants and museums dedicated to the tenements of the past now, but the boss still found himself drawn back here.  
  
It was just a shame that he'd have to go ahead and deliver such... difficult news. Joseph sighed as he took a moment, licking his thick eyebrows to straighten them out. The boss didn't much care for being interrupted during this time but he always kept the clock open if necessary or important news came by his desk. It was Joseph's responsibility to see to it that the news got delivered. In truth it wasn't all bad news; sure a refund of their mysterious buyers contract might be in order with Hardy in lock up, but there came some good with the bad. Hopefully it'd be good enough to settle things for a little while. He pulled in front of one of them fancy eatin' joints in Little Italy now, De Nico's, and strode out, giving the limo driver the instruction to wait.  
  
It was a pretty nice place. Not somewhere you'd expect someone of the magnitude of the boss to be hanging out but it weren't no street vendor either. By and large the restaurant was closed, effectively rented out by its sole patron for the evening. There he was in the back, talking with some business partners and confidants, having the time of his life and enjoying a little time to himself. However, upon spotting Joseph's dome, recognizable to most men in the know in the city for its... let's call it [unusual shape](http://statici.behindthevoiceactors.com/behindthevoiceactors/_img/chars/hammerhead-the-spectacular-spider-man-85.8.jpg), the boss man's mood dimmed, as his friends, partners and confidants took notice.  
  
"Well, well. Mr. Molotok. Good to see you around these parts. Don't suppose you'll be joinin' us for a little dinner, would ya?" Joseph raised his hand and shook it.  
  
"'Fraid not, had a big dinner not too long ago. I'm here to have a word with your host this evening. Of course, if he has time?" Joseph was sure to keep it deferential; if the boss man didn't want him interrupting his evening he'd gladly wait till he was done. Still, he watched as the boss sighed, dabbing his mouth with a napkin as he placed it on the table. So long as you showed the respect due to the man, he was open to hearing you... with Joseph himself this proved especially true.  
  
"Gentlemen, a bit unusual I know but... well, you'll excuse us for a moment would you? Mr. Molotok usually doesn't come around unless it's something important." It was funny; these suits and dresses here were probably worth hundreds of times more money than Joseph would ever have in his entire life, even working for the boss, but they all bowed their heads respectfully to him and departed in short order. "Thank you my friends. I'll be sure to call for you so we can resume our dinner. Rest assured, it's on me for this interruption... as well as any seconds you might care for, should the food get cold."  
  
"What a generous soul. Hard to believe he climbed to the top of this here city with such an angelic attitude." Brown-nosing at its finest but it did get a smile out of the boss. Soon enough the restaurant was emptied out, even the staff being smart enough to go ahead and have a smoke break.  
  
"... This place cleared for bugs, boss?" Joseph asked as he pulled up a seat and placed his hands on the table.  
  
"Mr. Mason's tech hasn't failed us before; building's clean, Hammerhead." The boss' genial attitude and charm slowly melted away, replaced by the experienced hand and gripping charisma that Hammerhead had come to know him for. "I assume it's important if you've come by; you know how important this time is for me. The neighborhood is meant to be my reprieve, a little nostalgic trip to relive the old days."  
  
"Of course, boss. Wouldn't dream of interruptin' otherwise." Hammerhead clarified, the boss nodding as Joseph leaned forward. "Seems like the cat's luck has finally run out. Hardy's in lock up, not even that far from here actually. Guy's been caught and the painting is probably safely back in the Guggenheim."  
  
"Has he spoken about any details to the authorities?"  
  
"No, at least, none that ain't on your payroll, boss. Police are in the dark except that Hardy got tagged in the foot by somethin' before they found him tied up outside the Guggenheim." The boss raised an eyebrow; clearly his attention was now fully captivated. "According to 'our' police though, Hardy ran afoul of old Frankie boy. That wound in his foot is a parting present from the man's pistol." The boss sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.  
  
"Another job down the drain... still... I'm curious. Our Mr. Castle hasn't been known to leave his targets alive before." Hammerhead smirked; of course the boss would hone in on that.  
  
"Our other little friend ended up runnin' interference, according to Hardy."  
  
"The Devil?"  
  
"Nah, the new runt."  
  
"Ah, the Spider-Man." The boss rubbed his chin as he looked off to the side. "Interesting. So our 'Friendly Neighborhood' pest has gone from putting The Enforcers in prison to ruining Mr. Castle's evening. That is... fortuitous." Joseph smirked at that.  
  
"Figured you'd like hearin' that news, boss. According to Hardy the kid ended up swinging in damn near the last minute. Blames him for letting him get shot in the foot but, well, I think we know how that little firefight would've gone in the Spider didn't show up."  
  
"Indeed. Castle must've gotten word about Hardy from any number of the men he's killed. He must've tracked him down in hopes of getting word of our slightly more... connected, clients." The boss man stood up as he walked across the restaurant, running a hand against the counter as he thought. "I swear, it was our biggest mistake not having someone go into that hospital room to put a bullet in Castle's head. It would've caused some headaches to get around it but... God be damned if Castle hasn't ended up being a far worse headache alive than dead in his hospital bed."  
  
"It was the right call for the time, boss. No guarantee that Castle was gonna recover from that head wound... or that he'd be up and at 'em so quickly." The boss nodded as he heaved a sigh, shaking his head.  
  
"Well... if there's one good bit of news tonight is that it seems our Mr. Castle finally has himself a predator. The Spider-Man, if he was so easily able to dispatch The Enforcers, should prove more than a match for Castle. Hopefully that'll keep that nuisance underground." Hammerhead nodded at that as he stood up himself.  
  
"What about the contracts then? Relating to our client for the painting and... well, dealing with Mr. Castle?"  
  
"A full refund is in order. We couldn't secure his painting so we must uphold our dignity. Failure is one thing... failure without meeting your obligations is how you lose credibility." The boss man walked looked back at Joseph, smiling slightly. "As for the contract dealing with Castle? Well... no need to pay a freak to deal with him if we've got one freak willing to do it for free. Go ahead and cancel our negotiations with Mr. Wilson, his services will no longer be required."  
  
"Of course." Joseph bowed his head as he looked up at the boss. "Finally, what about Mr. Hardy? The man's asking we transfer his accounts over to his daughter to keep the authorities from getting a hold of them. I figure that's an easy enough ask but, well, are we givin' him the same treatment as The Enforcers? Man's old so I can't imagine letting him sit for a bit will-"  
  
"Mr. Hardy will not be receiving the same treatment as The Enforcers. The Enforcers are valuable... but they did fail us, and failed us quite spectacularly. Their work up to this point earned them the right to be 'disappeared' from the prison system and returned to work for me... a little time to remind them of what awaits them in prison was just necessary. Their failure can't be repeated again." The boss man heaved a sigh as he shook his head. "Hardy's a different case. The man's past his prime for his work; he's slowin' down, making more and more mistakes in his job. This might be the first time he's gotten caught but it ain't the first time he's come close. The fact that he's carrying that piece around now a days is confirmation. Deep down even Hardy knows he isn't what he used to be.  
  
"Hardy can't continue to hang around and soak up clients. A new generation of his kind of thief need to be given their chance to work, to replace him. Can't do that if he's pulling rank or using what he used to be to wow our clientele. Hardy ain't going into the prison to be pulled out like The Enforcers... he'll be staying there."  
  
"I see, sad news but hardly unexpected. The man's been stubborn about not retiring; this was bound to happen eventually." Joseph said, firmly, as the boss nodded.  
  
"That said, Mr. Hardy has faithfully served me and our organization for decades now. I'm not about to forget that and leave him hanging on his own. We're to ensure that he gets put in with the white collar criminals. All the creature comforts that he could ask for are to be provided for him. Is that clear, Hammerhead." Joseph nodded as he gave a short bow.  
  
"I'll make sure all the proper arrangements will be made. Hardy ain't gonna be happy about it though." The boss shook his head.  
  
"Like you said, this was bound to happen eventually. Hardy has no one to blame but himself for not getting out earlier. The fact that he's still alive to retire so comfortably in prison while his daughter gets control over his accounts is more than he could've expected under other circumstances." With that the boss turned back to his, eyebrow raised expectantly. "Now then, is that all you had for me, Hammerhead?"  
  
"That's all for this evening boss. Apologies for interrupting."  
  
"No, no. Don't apologize. This was... good news and bad news, admittedly, but important news. I needed to hear this at once. Excellent work at always." Joseph couldn't help the slight grin that formed on his lips, wry and smirkin' but nonetheless pleased, as the boss adjusted his tie. "Now then, would you be a good man and inform the staff and my guests they may come back in? I'd like to return to dinner at once." Joseph, once more, offered a gracious bow before he moved for the front of the restaurant.  
  
"Of course, boss. Your word is law, after all...  
  
"Big Man."


	17. Who is Frank Castle?

"Right, right, right. Of course; your son needs that in red. Yes, I remember, not just red but crimson red. Right, and your older boy wants... hmmm, well, I don't think I necessarily have that in stock right now so it's a little... oh you'd be willing to pay a little extra? Alright I can definitely hit some place I know that would have that in stock. Okay, yes, the tiara's coming along just nicely. No, I don't think it's necessarily unmanly for a boy to wear a tiara, especially if it's from that one show that my nephew and his little friend seem to like. Hmmm... if your measurements were right..."  
  
You blink as you meander down the stairs, blearily rubbing your eyes. Tomorrow was Halloween and, honestly, you didn't manage to make any big or important plans beforehand to take advantage of the holiday. Not that you minded; you were a little old to be going out in costume like a little kid anymore and without costume parties for kids your age it kind of defeat the point of all of it...  
  
Hey, going out as Spider-Man to help fight crime was totally different than wearing a costume like a little kid.  
  
Still, with Halloween being tomorrow you'd figure that most people would be done with their Halloween shopping and would have everything in order. You'd figure that but apparently you'd be wrong as Aunt May was busy scratching this and that into various notepads, talking to people on the phone as she quickly finished up with one person before checking her messages to call someone else back. Still, despite all the hustle and bustle the woman was putting out she was still doing her best to cook breakfast...  
  
Wait.  
  
"Agh! Aunt May! You really should've asked Uncle Ben or I to help you, look at yourself!" You hurriedly rush in to try and help Aunt May lift a few things around the kitchen, the old woman just laughing slightly at your sudden intrusion as she turned her attention back to the phone.  
  
"Sorry ma'am, that would be my nephew... Oh he's just trying to help me finish cooking breakfast while I'm working on all this for Halloween... I know, he's a dear but I'm fine enough taking care of them myself." You watch as Aunt May gives you a slightly amused look as she said this, clearly sending a message that it was meant for both you and the person on the phone as she finished scribbling something on her notebook. "Now, is that all? Yes? Good, well I'll be sure to have this ready for you to pick up tomorrow. No, thank you darling. I'll talk to you later." With that Aunt May turned off her phone and looked back to you. "Really Peter, I'm fine."  
  
"Aunt May, you've got like three different things on the stove and you're juggling all these calls, we-"  
  
"Peter, your Uncle Ben is many, many wonderful things... but the man can't cook to save his life or ours. I will not have him within five feet of my kitchen, and that's the law of this house." Holy moley, what the Heck had Uncle Ben done to earn that kind of hard law in the household. "As for you Peter, while I do appreciate it, you've done your fair share of work; you got your homework done early, you're back in school and I know you've made plans with Ben to go to Empire State University's library to study later today."  
  
"Y-Yeah, but still, that's just like book stuff Aunt May, I can-"  
  
"You can, and I appreciate that you're offering Peter but I'm fine Peter. Trust me, this isn't my first Halloween rush." You smiled slightly as you just shrugged your shoulders and had a seat at the table. At the very least while you were in the room it seemed May was more content to talk to you and take her focus off of her phone rather than try to mix taking orders for her shop and cook at the same time, so you'd claim some small victory and just keep talking to her.  
  
"Another busy Halloween huh?"  
  
"Oh ho, no doubt! You always think that the next Halloween is going to be less busy than the last one but, as it turns out, nothing stops people from having children Peter. Nothing keeps those children from wanting candy or wanting to play dress up either. Why, I remember how excited you were for Halloween even last year. What did you dress up as again, Peter?"

...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Your eyes went slightly wide as the mental images played across your mind. 'Come on Ned, it's the last year we can probably do this', you said. 'It's a great idea, it'll be a great time and then we'll be able to cherish it as our last Halloween memory', you said. 'I mean come on, is it any less embarrassing than any of your other Halloween costumes, it'll be great', you said! _Peter_ Pan and Captain _Ned_ Hook, you two called the idea. You in a pair of tights that really accentuated your nerdy frame and just how skin and bones you were. Ned looking like one of those stereotypical, chubby aristocrats you'd see in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie rather than an actual pirate, even one as goofy and silly as Captain Hook. You both knew it was a mistake the moment you went out and children were pointing and laughing at you, adults barely containing their mirth at the sight.  
  
The adults weren't being malicious, some little voice in your mind said. The fact that they were telling their children to stop pointing and that they were trying so hard to keep you two from noticing how amused they were about all of this said as much. They didn't want to hurt your feelings. They were just laughing at two fourteen year old teenagers running around in Disney costumes. God help them, you don't think you could even blame them. If it were you and Ned on the outside looking in and if it was someone like say Flash Thompson in the getup, you wouldn't be able to stop laughing. You'd die of an asthma attack from how hard you'd be laughing at the sight of Flash Thompson in your costume.  
  
However, you weren't on the outside looking in. You were on the inside watching as all the other trick-or-treaters got their kicks laughing at you and Ned as you went around looking so ridiculous. The only thing that saved that situation, the only thing that made it even slightly okay at the moment was the fact that nobody at school had seen you. That nobody you knew would realize what a pair of idiots you two had looked like. You and Ned had held onto that little fact, to that little nugget of hope, for the entire night and used it to try and fight back against the embarrassment...  
  
Except that wasn't true.  
  
No.  
  
It wasn't true at all.  
  
Because the next day at school...  
  
 _"Huehahahahahahaha! Hey there, if it isn't Peter Pan! Hey Peter, why are you here at school when you could be off never growin' up at Neverland! Explains why you've got the build of a 10 year old!"  
_  
The internet was perhaps you and Ned's greatest gift... and your greatest enemy. Someone had snapped pictures. Someone had put those pictures on Facebook... and those pictures had gotten into Flash Thompson's hands. As ever, the bullying wasn't the awful stuff you expected to endure from tv shows but, God, you almost would've preferred it to the giggles and chortles you heard around every corner that day at school. At least with a swirly you got your head dunked in the toilet and that was that. _The girls_ , man! The girls were all laughing and giggling to themselves! Granted, you probably had a rough chance of scoring any kind of date during your Freshman year to begin with but you could point to those pictures of you and Ned as Peter Pan and Captain Hook as the big reason why your chances of dating _anyone_ Freshman year hit the floor.  
  
Ned didn't talk to you that entire day. You were being melodramatic but you really felt like your friendship with him was at risk after that. Thankfully you guys recovered and, arguably, became even stronger friends; after all, it was you two versus Midtown at that point. Like with all things high school, eventually Peter Pan faded out of everyone's memory and you and Ned could safely put that behind you...  
  
But you two would never forget.  
  
 _Never forget._  
  
"Peter?" You quickly shook your head as Aunt May looked concerned, your focus slowly returning to the far less horrifying present day as May chuckled a bit. "Goodness Peter, you looked like you were having a war flashback for a moment there. Something the matter, dear?"  
  
"Uh, no, no no Aunt May. Nothing at all." At least nothing that wasn't confined to the horrible memories you'd randomly remember and embarrass yourself with out of nowhere for the rest of your natural life... which, come to think of it, these Spidey powers might've extended considering the general state of your health...  
  
Damn you, Spider Powers.  
  


"Why aren't you going out for Halloween this year Peter? Fifteen isn't too old to be going out to Trick or Treat." You smiled awkwardly but couldn't help but internally disagree. As much as you and Ned still partook in some pretty fun activities that might not be considered cool for your age, though you'd always insist that Legos were fun for anyone of any age... even the both of you felt _really_ awkward last year going out for Halloween to trick or treat. You didn't know how it happened or when but sometime between Halloween 2016 and Halloween 2017... the magic was gone. When you and Ned looked around you both didn't see fellow kids going door to door to get candy and hunt for treasure...  
  
You two saw a bunch of much littler kids doing the same thing, with you two being the, effectively, creepy older adults kind of muscling in on their fun. It was the first real 'How do you do my fellow kids' moment of your life and it wasn't one you were really psyched to repeat this year. You'd never really taken Flash's teasing, prodding and mockery seriously but that year... well, you felt it because you felt embarrassed to have been out there...  
  
Growing up was weird.  
  
"Trust me Aunt May, fifteen is way too old to be out Trick or Treating. Learned that one the hard way last year." You commented idly as May shrugged, handing you off a bit of toast with jam she'd finished up as you two spoke.  
  
"Well I suppose you're the only one who'd know that one way or the other Peter. Still, oh, it's going to be such a shame. I already kind of miss picking out costumes or making one for you. It was always such a nice little family tradition. Ah well, you're still gonna be up for my Thanksgiving turkey this year, right?" May sent a little wink back your way, causing you to chuckle as you took a bite out of your toast.  
  
"Pfft, like I'd miss that for anything Aunt May." You mulled Aunt May's words over in your head as she spoke. Yeah, it always was a blast going out to pick out costumes or to tell Aunt May what you wanted to be and just see her bring that costume to life. It was a shame to have that go but... well, hey, at least you still had the memories, right?

Anyway...  
  
Speaking of costumes... your Spider-Man costume. It wasn't great, that much was obvious. As nifty as it was for a first superhero suit that let you go out and fight crime... well, you'd really kind of hate if that costume became a signature look for you. You had these ideas about what you wanted Spider-man to look like; you wanted the entire costume to look as good as the effort you put into the Spider design on its chest! However, doing something like that probably meant that you weren't going to be able to just 'buy' a costume; custom ordering a superhero costume was probably the sort of thing that left a paper trail...  
  
Which of course meant that you'd have to make the thing from scratch yourself.  
  
Luckily...  
  
"Uh, hey, Aunt May?" You awkwardly scratch your arm as Aunt My looked back at you, causing you to wince a little. "So, you know, speaking of costumes there's this convention that'll be coming to NYC that Ned and I were thinking of going to. Of course it'd be really cool if we made our own costumes to go to boot, you know, cosplay a little bit. So I was wondering if you knew where I could grab... you know, like, bolts of fabric to use?" You watch as May blinks a bit, the older woman surprised, before she smiles in an amused manner.  
  
"Oh ho. Too old to go out trick-or-treating though, right?"  
  
"Hey, cosplaying is different than trick-or-treating!" Aunt May just crossed her arms, clearly feeling like she was in a position to win, as she just raised an eyebrow at you waiting for your reasons. "... There's probably a lot of reasons why that's true but I can't get into it right now!" May gave a soft laugh as she looked at you, clearly amused but willing to let it go for the sake of your pride.  
  
"Peter dear, do you even know how to sew? I could make this costume for you if you really wanted, it wouldn't be-"  
  
"I appreciate it Aunt May but... well, I'd really like to make this costume myself. You know, do my own thing and make it my own." Also you really didn't want Aunt May to lay eyes on Spider-Man's next costume and realize what her nephew was getting up to.  
  
"Well Peter as an artist myself I can certainly respect that." You sigh in relief as May tapped her chin. "Well let's see... sadly my own shop is more specialized in handicrafts and accessories rather than outright costume making." Which was good, you really didn't want May to see what all you'd be buying. "Hmmm... well, what are you thinking of as far as the costume goes, Peter?"  
  
...  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Well I'll be able to help a lot more if I know what you're thinking of as far as a costume. How many colors, what you're looking for as far as general design. It'd help me think of what shop might be best suited to what you need. I might even be able to give you a little price range for what you're thinking."  
  
...  
  
Oh, yeah. You supposed that made sense.

"Oh... you know. I was thinking a pretty simple cloth fabric."  
  
"Cloth fabric? Hoo boy, well then, I guess you could mean anything from polyester to llama wool there Peter." Aunt May said, jokingly, as you slapped your head a bit.  
  
"Right, sorry, that's probably insanely unhelpful. Uh... cotton, maybe even polyester, I'm not picky so long as it's cheap. A lot of red and a lot of blue and just a little white. Also thinking like some black thread for highlights? It's kind of necessary for the character I'm cosplaying." You could vaguely picture the costume in your head now. A continuation of the color scheme you were using but... tighter, more focused. It wasn't random from just picking what articles of clothes you kid, but it was focused down, used with purpose in order to give contrast and to have the colors bounce off the other. Of course there had to be white for your Spidey Symbol; you weren't about to leave that behind after you did such a good job on it!  
  
The black highlights... well, you kind of had this little mental image of like webs across the costume. You'd actually have to get around to designing it but you really, really liked the feel of it; heck maybe you could put the cloth over some shoes and gloves so that it fit together but still offered you some of padding on your hands and feet. Heck, you supposed if you made the costume with thick enough layers of fabric it could even protect you a bit just on its own. As you ruminated on this May tapped her chin as she seemed to punch the numbers a bit.  
  
"This is just meant to be a costume for you, right?"  
  
"Ned's got something different in mind so all of this material is just me." You watch as May quickly looks you over, walking up to you before doing some rough measurements with her hands. You're nervous at first but, thankfully, your baggy clothes throw her off of how muscular you've become as she tilts her head to the side.  
  
"Well... I'd say it depends on how much of each color you're planning on using..."  
  
"Like... half and half-ish with the blue and red? With just a splash of white?" You offered, a bit awkwardly, as you shrugged. "Plus like I said some black thread to sew in for highlights." You see Aunt May hum to herself again.  
  
"Well... in that case... it sounds like you could use a bolt of blue and red cotton fabric-"  
  
"A bolt, Aunt May-"  
  
"Oh Peter bolts can come in smaller sizes. Though to fit your rough dimensions you'd still want a bit of it." You nodded, taking a piece of paper and a pen from a nearby shelf and going to work. "Now let's see here... there's this nice little shop over here in Brooklyn. I get some of the cloth I work with from there myself, the owner's a dear if a bit of a stern fellow. Tell him you're May's nephew and you should be in good. Now then... to get enough cloth for what you want, plus the black thread... oh, roughly one-hundred dollars, one-hundred and twenty if you can't manage to find a good bargain for what you're looking for?" May goes on to more specifically give you some addresses and names to go to in order to look for the material you're looking for as well as the amount of cloth you're likely looking to purchase to make your... er. Cosplay.  
  
"Thanks Aunt May, this is exactly what I was looking for." You say with a smile as May chuckles.  
  
"No problem Peter. Now why don't you go ahead and get washed up. Breakfast is just about ready." You nod in understanding, turning to leave just before May calls out to you again. Facing back toward her you're surprised to see a twenty dollar bill. "Don't forget your allowance Peter. A little early I know but, well, why not right?" May gave a hearty laugh as you smiled, appreciative.  
  
"Thanks Aunt May, you don't know what a big help this is." And that she and Uncle Ben have been. At this point you'd have run out of money for Webbing to be Spider-Man at all based on your original funds. The fact that on top of that she was unknowingly helping you plot out your next costume, one that would, hopefully, keep you from looking like a bum?  
  
Man, these people were special.  
  
"Oh please Peter, it's the least we can do. Now wash up, I won't have you eating breakfast with filthy hands."  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
"One more thing Peter... whatever you have to call it to keep having this sort of fun... well, don't ever feel like you're too old to enjoy yourself." What was... oh, right! Trick-or-Treating and cosplay!  
  
"Aunt May, I'm telling you it's totally different!"  
  
"Of course, of course." You sigh as you run back up the stairs. You really were blessed...  
  
But the woman did need to understand that going out and Trick-or-Treating and cosplay were two totally different things!  
  
You were serious!  
 **xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"Maaan... school's a drag..."  
  
"Easy there Shikamaru."  
  
"Oh haha." Ned rolled his eyes as he scribbled away at some schoolwork, finishing up the last bit of his homework as the two of you hanged around in his room. Ned had gone with the approach of slowly doling out his homework over the course of the two weeks you all had been given, picking at it bit by bit and saving the last bits for, well, the free weekend you two would have. As you looked over Ned's shoulder it wasn't even homework Ned was bad at; it was computer stuff, the kind of thing Ned dug the Hell out of. However, it was really boring, monotonous looking busy work. Probably why he was saving it for last; he wouldn't enjoy it so no point in doing it first and it wouldn't be hard for him to do so no point in giving himself extra time to work on it just in case.  
  
"Come on Pete, you can't tell me that after the past month we've had that you don't think school's been even more boring than before, right?" You chuckle a bit as you raise your hands.  
  
"Now I didn't say that." Ned chortled as you leaned forward, nodding your head. "I mean, totally dude. I've really felt the squeeze from school suddenly dropping in. I mean... three weeks ago I was getting ready to be a superhero, getting my costume done and then finally going to foil some crimes... now... like, I gotta schedule out time to do homework and stuff man. That really eats into the 'stop criminals' part of my schedule." You groused as you reached over to grab some more potato chips that Ned had helpfully provided, the computer wiz nodding as he flustered a bit. "But hey, at least I finished my homework all at once. That basically ate up most of my time for a few days but, hey."  
  
"Man, if Flash Thompson knew you finished your homework like all at once he'd totally rip on you, man."  
  
"Eh, Flash would rip on me even if I waited to finish my homework. Flash basically exists to moderately inconvenience people for his own amusement."  
  
"Probably not the way Liz Allen would put it." Ned chuckled to himself, causing you to snort as you threw a potato chip at his head.  
  
"Dude! Besides, Liz is like his girlfriend so he's bound to be at least less of a douche, right?" Ned shrugged as he turned in his seat to look at you.  
  
"You know I always figured it be worse? Like, bullying and stuff. Like the way some of those cheesy ABC Family movies make it look it's basically like... I dunno, prison and you have to doll yourself up to be a very pretty lady for some guy to keep it from happening to you." You shrug at that; in truth at other schools it probably was but Midtown, thankfully, was one of those ritzier schools that took better care to make sure its students were on the up and up. Thank your good grades for getting you into this High School, you guess.  
  
"... Do you think that's actually what jail's like?" You ask, almost as an afterthought, as Ned shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"I dunno. Hopefully we'll never have to figure that out; between some stuff I've been looking up on line and your costume, we should be golden." You grin a bit as you lean forward.  
  
"Oh, lookin' into some stuff, Guy In The Chair?"  
  
"I have been. Just a few things about our phones, me keeping up various little programs to keep people from telling where I've been, the simple stuff. No point in getting caught because our phones keep track of where we are, right?"  
  
"Better still if no one has any idea to look at what we're doing in the first place though, right?"  
  
"True that man."  
  
...  
  
"Dude, your homework?"  
  
"Gah!" You laugh as Ned turns back to work on his homework, grumbling a bit as he ran a hand through his hair. "Man, if this homework wasn't so boring... eh, honestly, I'd probably still prefer talking about superhero stuff." Ned said with a laugh as he glanced over his shoulder. "What about it Peter? Come on; you've gotta have some sweet deets about what you've been doing these past few weeks!"  
  
Well...

Oh man, you absolutely had to tell Ned about all the crazy things you got up to at the museum! He'd been flipping out at your various stories about what you'd been getting up to and you know, you know, he'd super dig your actions from that night. Man though, where would you even start? The thief who used a real, honest to God grappling gun to get around? The fact that you had to save him from falling to his death by pulling off a super sweet feat of acrobatics and Web zipping up there? Oh, oh! Maybe your super cool quip while hanging upside down and taking their guns. Then again you could go for talking about how you swung into...  
  
Into Frank Castle.  
  
...  
  
"Well Ned I got a Hell of a story from the museum incident a couple nights ago... but, well. Could you do me a favor?"  
  
"Sure man, what's up?"  
  
"While we're talking, mind looking up a guy for me? Frank Castle?" You watch Ned shrug his shoulders as he turned back to his PC, quickly typing in a few commands as he opened up Google.  
  
"So who is this guy? He one of the big wigs in this whole gang war thing?"  
  
"No man, he's behind all the killings himself. He's been going around killing criminals."  
  
...  
  
"No way?" Ned asked, clearly amazed as you just nodded to confirm. "Jeez man, that's like thirty plus deaths according to the news. All of that down to one guy?"  
  
"Yeah one guy who's a really scarily good shot judging by what he pulled that night. Just want to get deets on him." Ned nodded again as he quickly scrolled through Google, quickly bringing up a few news stories that hit on Frank Castle before looking back at you.  
  
"... So, he was a good shot huh? You get hit?"  
  
"Guy didn't even try to shoot me, funnily enough. Doubt he could've anyway. Besides I, like, kicked him in the chest after diving off the top of the Guggenheim and swinging into him."  
  
...  
  
"Duuuuuuude!" Ned said, a wide grin on his face as you couldn't help but smile anyway.  
  
"I know man! It was like some kind of crazy Dynamic Entry! Like I was Gai and I was just flying to kick the dude right in the chest! He flew into a statue and dented it and everything!"  
  
"Oh man, that sounds so awesome!"  
  
"Oh man you don't know the half of it, that wasn't even the highlight of my night! Dude, Web Swinging around Manhattan if friggin' nuts! I spent, like, hours just up in the air swinging around, my Webbing being the only thing connecting me to all those skyscrapers dude."  
  
"Oh dude, the view must've been killer!"  
  
"DUDE IT TOTALLY WAS!"  
  
This happened every now and then when you and Ned got a little too excited; speech devolved into 'dudes' as you both went back and forth.  
  
"Totally saved the guy he was after too and stuck him to a wall. He was trying to steal a painting with a grappling hook... not like 'with a grappling hook', I just mean he had a grappling hook on him."  
  
...  
  
"If he tried to steal a painting with a grappling hook that would be so friggin' cool though."  
  
"I KNOW!" You and Ned giggle among yourselves at that as you slap his shoulder very lightly. "Dude though he like tried to get away but then he almost fell from the ceiling so I had to do like this split flip where I pointed my Webbing two ways. Frank Castle ended up avoiding it, though, kinda sucked but I totally nailed the window by the old guy and zipped up to save him!"  
  
"My man Peter Parker, going around and saving thieves lives before turning them over to the police. Look at this superhero over here." You struck a heroic pose at that, grinning from ear to ear as, finally, Ned's tabs finished loading. "Alright, let's take a look here at our friend Mr. Frank Castle... okay... woah. Okay. That's... like, a lot of ribbons."  
  
You nodded a bit as you furrowed your brow, kind of blown away by what you were seeing.  
  
 ** _QUEENS LOCAL RETURNS FROM AFGHANISTAN TOUR AFTER EARNING DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS_**  
 ** _Story by J. Jonah Jameson  
_**  
 ** _It was a long trip home for local New Yorker Frank G. Castle. The end of his Fourth Tour of Duty brought him from the withering deserts and chilled mountain plateaus of Afghanistan to the marble halls of Washington D.C. where the marine was awarded a Silver Star in recognition for his duty across his many years as a career soldier. That leg of the trip was hardly unknown to Mr. Castle; following a battle in Basra, Iraq during his first tour Frank Castle was awarded a Purple Heart and the Silver Star for a show of heroic bravery that ended up saving a much of his unit during a surprise attack by the Sunni Insurgency that rocked Iraq following the fall of the Ba'athist regime.  
  
Several commendations, service and campaign medals and a record number, for this decade, of marksmanship awards and badges paved the path for Frank Castle to see the final award of his service to his nation; the Distinguished Service Cross. While many men with a track record of Frank Castle's caliber might've felt scorned for not having achieved the highest award the nation can offer, the Medal of Honor, Frank Castle shows no worry or concern about having missed out on his chance for this reward. When reached for word by the Daily Bugle, Captain Frank Castle responded thusly;  
_**  
 ** _"It's time for me to go home. I got a wife and two kids that I've been away from for way too long. Time for me to start making my home here."_**  
  
 ** _Few words for a man of considerable action and duty but ones that can be readily understood. Frank Castle returns to his childhood Borough of Queens this week where he'll be greeted by his loving wife, Maria Castle, a sterling member of the community according to locals of South Jamaica, and his two children Lisa Castle and Frank Castle Jr. We here at the Daily Bugle wish this war hero well on his return to civilian life.  
_**  
...  
  
"So... this is the guy who's put down thirty people huh?"  
  
"Yeah, no mistaking him." Your eyes narrowed slightly; he might've been grungier when you saw him but there was no mistaking it. The well dressed marine accepting the Distinguished Service Cross from the President in that picture was Frank Castle, the man you'd seen with your own two eyes at the Guggenheim. It was so strange; in the pristine dress uniform of a marine the guy almost looked respectable and dignified. He still commanded a certain presence even in the picture, the same sort of intimidation that came across him naturally in the Guggenheim.  
  
"Well... it'd explain where he got the training to do so from at least. According to some of these other news stories the guy's got like at least eighty confirmed kills across his four tours. Still though... it's kind of funny. The guy's born in like 84 so he's technically a friggin' millennial." You would've been more amused, would've tried to smile at Ned's attempt to lighten the mood, were it not for the fact that the guy you'd tried and failed to put away was staring back at you in these pictures.  
  
"So... what? He's some kind of crazy marine who couldn't adjust to a civilian life so he's going on a killing spree? Picking criminals because it's the only way to justify it?" It was so ridiculous. Like you wanted to mock him as some kind of 90s-esque anti-hero but if this was all the case then... Hell, he was basically just that. Except those guys were fiction and this guy was actually blowing people's heads off with shotguns.  
  
"I guess..." Ned said, clicking through another couple stories.  
  
"Man just... forget it, guess I know the guy a little better now, right? Know what I'm up against."  
  
"Yeah, I'll just go ahead and..."  
  
...  
  
"Go ahead and what?" You asked, rubbing your face with your hands as you tried to think of what the Hell to make of all of this.  
  
"... Peter?"  
  
...  
  
Ned's voice, quiet and kind of uncertain, drew your attention back to the computer screen...  
  
The sinking feeling in your gut told you that you really wished he hadn't.  
  
 ** _THREE MURDERED, ONE SEVERELY WOUNDED IN GUNFIGHT AT CENTRAL PARK  
Story by Robbie Robertson  
  
It's been a long time since New York City has been forced to witness the gunning down of her own citizens. However, for the first time since the boom time of crime in NYC, Central Park saw a mass slaughter of innocent civilians. Maria Castle, Lisa Castle and Frank Castle Jr., children of the well known Frank G. Castle that the Daily Bugle has previously reported on, were gunned down in Central Park during a family day out. At ages 33, 14 and 7, their lives were tragically cut short by this sudden and pointless act of violence. Former marine Frank Castle himself remains in critical condition after a bullet severely wounded him in the head. At this hour Frank Castle's health remains touch and go and it is uncertain as to whether the decorated marine will survive this incident.  
  
Friend of the family and eye witness, former marine Billy Russo, says that the attack was swift and sudden; unmasked but otherwise innocuous individuals approached the family from around a carousel prominently featured at the site they had stopped to eat and then opened fire on the Castle Family, immediately killing Lisa and the junior Frank Castle before managing to fatally wound Maria Castle. Frank's current condition, according to Billy Russo, was only due to quick action on the part of the former marine.  
  
"Frankie (Frank G. Castle) means a lot to me; the guy saved my life more times than I can count and I can promise you that I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for him. The fact that this man and his wonderful, loving family were gunned down in broad daylight is a travesty, especially after the blood, sweat and tears he's already given for New York City and this country."  
  
The current identities of the gunmen remain unknown and no arrests have been made.  
  
Mayor Bill de Blasio-  
_**  
You couldn't help but feel like your stomach bottomed out re-reading that second to last line.  
  
 _The current identities of the gunmen remain unknown and no arrests have been made.  
_  
The very sentence chilled your blood to the bone as you looked down at Ned who now looked just as uncomfortable as you felt.  
  
"... They had to find someone eventually, right? I mean, people don't just get away with opening fire in Central Park in broad daylight." Ned licked his lips as he quickly went about Googling again, this time narrowing in on the story in question.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"... Nothing Pete. There's nothing..."  
  
...  
  
Okay...

"So... what do we do about this Pete? I mean... what do you do if you meet the guy out there again."  
  
...  
  
"The same thing I was trying to do before Ned." You watch as your overweight friend turned to look at you, surprised, as you took a deep, long breath. "Ned... I understand why he's doing this now. I understand why Frank Castle wants to do what he does. Maybe it's because he just wants revenge or maybe he doesn't want people to suffer the same fate that he has... but either way, his family died and now he wants to clear out crime in New York." You looked down at your fist and clenched it. "If I'm being honest... if the same thing happened to me? If Aunt May and Uncle Ben died because some criminal just gunned them down? I'm... I'm not sure what I'd do Ned. Especially not while I have this kind of power."  
  
"Pete..." Ned said, understandingly, as you took a deep breath.  
  
"That doesn't matter though. Understanding him, sympathizing with his reasons... that doesn't change the basic facts, Ned. It doesn't change the fact that I have to stop him. He's killing people Ned and no matter how many crooks he puts down like this it isn't going to bring his family back. It just means more death... and eventually that rampage is going to end up with people who don't deserve to die being killed. By Frank Castle's hands or the hands of the people trying to stop him. People who don't deserve to die, even by... whatever low standards he has." You even had to admit now; with the reason why he was doing this, no innocents dying during his attacks made sense. The guy was murdering crooks, excising them from New York City.  
  
You would've been impressed, and to some degree were, if you weren't so opposed to his vision of violence.  
  
"For the sake of peace in New York Frank has to be brought in, whatever his reasons for doing it. That's still my job... even if I have to put it on hold until I can track him down again." You sighed as you scratched the back of your head.  
  
"... Well, you're not exactly alone in this Pete." You look over at Ned, the young man grinning at you as he took a deep breath. "I can keep an eye out across New York City, keep looking over police broadcasts. See if any killings matching the ones attributed to the gang war start popping back up. If I come up with any hits that might lead you Castle's way, I could hand them off to you."  
  
...  
  
"My Guy in the Chair." You grinned as you pat Ned on the shoulder, the chubby young man just grinning as he nodded at you.  
  
"You know it, Pete." The both of you looked back at the computer, sighing a bit as you took in the sight of that last news article again. "... I'm feeling pretty bummed out."  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"... Want to help build my Lego Death Star?"  
  
...  
  
"Absolutely!"  
  
For now you and Ned turned away from the future. Of crime and punishment and the work of a vigilante. You'd done enough of that during a time when you were...  
  
"Wait, what about your homework Ned?"  
  
Right, he still had to finish that.  
  
...  
  
"... Son of a biscuit."

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

[Empire State University.](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/5/54/Empire_State_University_from_Starbrand_%26_Nightmask_Vol_1_4_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160602011914) A beating heart of learning and education right in the middle of New York City. Where such minds as Doctors Curt Connors, Stephen Strange and other brilliant minds honed their intellect over a course of years! Where still brilliant minds worked and still more brilliant minds were forged! It was one of the many crown jewels of New York City, a rare example of a compact campus within the bustling streets of Manhattan; surrounded on all sides by the brilliantly tall skyscrapers that forged the heart of New York and yet still carrying a very down to Earth sensibility to it. With a wide open courtyard and a whole several blocks to itself, this was the place to be if you really wanted to do some research.  
  
This place. It held its arms wide open for any and all people seeking knowledge! All you had to do was stride into the library, walk up to the desk... and receive it!  
  
...  
  
......  
  
........  
  
"Are you a student here at ESU?"  
  
...  
  
"No?"  
  
"Are you eighteen years or older?"  
  
"Er, no? I mean, I don't even look it, I-"  
  
"Feel free to browse through our collection of books. As you are not a student here at ESU you may not reserve or rent a book from this library and any attempts to take a book from the property will see you removed from not just this library but Empire State University's Campus. Thank you and have a nice day."  
  
...  
  
Wow all this guy at the front desk had to do was pop some gum in your face and you'd really feel properly disrespected...  
  
But it was all okay.  
  
Because at least you could be here with these brilliant books! Studying to your heart's content!  
  
...  
  
Actually until the library was closed to the public at 5:00 P.M. but hey who was counting, right?

.

..

…

 _"Would all non-ESU staff and students please depart the library, as most library staff will be retiring as we move onto the evening shift."_  
  
...  
  
Oh man was it that late already?  
  
A large, weighty chemistry book sat on the desk in front of you as you reached under your false glasses and rubbed your eyes. Checking your phone... yeah, it was that late. Uncle Ben was probably gonna be around to pick you up any minute. Best get back to the front of the University if you wanted to catch him on time.  
  
You know, as great as your dad's notes were, they were his notes from college or early university. The university itself had a great deal of resources all its own that could really help fill out your education. The time to travel was a bit much but, well, hey, price of knowledge, etc., etc. You yawned as you waved at some maintenance worker as he passed you by on your way out. Compared to Midtown's library this place had been nice, quiet and mostly filled with people who were just here to learn or pick up a book they needed for a class.  
  
It was a nice experience; you were kind of looking forward to college even more now that you'd gotten a taste of it...  
  
But that'd come one day eventually. No need to rush things, right?


	18. High-Speed Chase

Alright.  
  
Show some actual care this time around Parker. Last time you put in way too much of the new solution and it ended up thinning the Webbing out into goop. As you wiped at your brow to keep it dry you focused intently on the various additions and subtractions you were making to the formula, how much of the new solutions you were adding. Last time you'd royally screwed it up and ended up making... well, it's best not to say what the goopy, sticky, milky white Webbing ended up looking like with the new formula. Suffice it to say you really didn't want to think about it and you really wanted it to work out this time.  
  
So you finished up the mixture and then sat back, waiting for the heat to help percolate the Webbing formula so it'd all form together... hopefully. Hopefully this time it would all form together and everything would be fine...  
  
Please be fine.  
  
You really didn't want to waste more money.

  
After nearly a half hour of letting the stuff percolate you took a deep, shaky breath as you reached forward and turned of the fire, turning a few bits here so that the Webbing could be freed from its container. This was it, do or die at this point. As the Webbing sample poured forth there was a good sign immediately; it wasn't soup. It wasn't runny. It didn't look like... you know. It stayed solid and stayed together, slowly exiting from the chamber you kept it in initially and forming into a solid substance. Okay, so far so good.  
  
Even better, while the Webbing was by no means runny, it wasn't coming out in the thick chunks it had before. It wasn't expanding quite so much in the air as it tended to do with previous batches. For all intents and purposes, it was expanding ever so slightly but staying thin once outside of its initial cooker. Good, good. Two out of three. Now for the final test. You quickly picked up a sample of the Webbing, appropriately sticky to your pleasure, as you started to pull at it. You held back considerably of course; at your full strength you could've easily torn the Webbing in two without a second thought. It'd make for a poor test there. However, holding back... signs were good. You then went for the more fool-proof test of tethering the Webbing to a platter and putting weight on it, slowly stress testing it to find where it was most likely to fail...  
  
After several of these tests you felt confident in saying that this... was a complete success! You grinned as you tore up the remaining sample, leaving it in the trash to dissolve as you quickly got to work replacing your current stock. It'd take a little time but you could fill your cartridges with the new stuff in time for what you had planned and keep this stock throughout the week. You had enough leftover materials between the new batch and what you'd of the raw materials from the old stock to do so.  
  
This would definitely free you up to Web Swing a little more around the Boroughs; not having to worry about running out of Webbing right in the middle of a big after a lot of Web Swinging, one day, would be a load off your mind.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
 _"[TRYING HARD NOOOOOOW](https://youtu.be/ioE_O7Lm0I4?t=51)! IT'S SO HARD NOOOOOOW! TRYING HARD NOOOOOOOOW!  
_  
...  
  
It was a classic for a reason.  
  
You took deep, concerted breaths as you sprinted along the abandoned railroad tracks. The pounding of your feet, making sure to land on each remaining, somewhat rotted board as you ran, sent shocks up your legs and into your body as you kept your earphones in, tucked underneath your mask as you exercised by taking a good, long run...  
  
Like really long.  
  
Like, you had to stop at a certain point when you ran out of abandoned track, turn around and then keep sprinting like.  
  
Like a couple hours long now. You quickly reached into your bag, lifting your mask up to take a drink, practically dunking it into your mouth, before you lowered your mask and kept running. Honestly, ever since you became Spider-Man you'd probably run more in this past month along than you had in your entire life. That was no joke... and you could see why certain people enjoyed it. However, you took it was a grain of salt. You got to enjoy the runner's high aspect the longest. Your body wasn't tiring out easily and you were just keeping up this run for a good while before you started to get winded. In professional runners who could experience the dopamine that came from exercise for a good while without experiencing the exhaustion too quickly, or at all if they stopped soon enough, you could easily see why they enjoyed running.  
  
...  
  
That said, you were quickly finding that you did have limits and that a couple, or a few, straight hours of sprinting was it. You'd honestly lost track of time. Point was that you were starting to feel the aches and the breathlessness and quickly running was losing its fun aspect. You figure that you'd gotten enough exercise in for what you had planned for today and stopped back at your hideaway, sneaking back in as you took deep, heavy breaths, lifting up your mask to help get more air in. You put your hands above your head and just let yourself breath.  
  
Okay, that was good.  
  
You'd make a lot of progress, you thought...  
  
...  
  
Now you just had to take, like, a quick break before going off onto your patrol. You grinned despite yourself; that would probably sound insane to most other people but, God damn, if your Healing Factor wasn't awesome. It would take care of the aches and pains in short order, give you your breath back and then you'd be ready to go back out at it again...  
  
For a while at least.  
  
Your Healing Factor, cool as it was, had its limits when it came to you pushing yourself over the course of an entire day. It was more like it'd give you one last second wind after all this exercise, enough to carry you through your Patrol after the full day you'd already had.  
  
Man, school still sucked.  
  
...  
  
But you know what didn't suck?  
  
Being Spider-Man!  
  
After taking a half hour to catch your breath and let your aches subside you quickly got your gear together, made sure your costume was on good and snug and made your way to Brooklyn. Time to stop some crime!  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Sprint across a rooftop, easily jumping over a neat little air conditioning unit, you quickly turned that into a flip, a spring off your hands onto the ledge of the building. With a tremendous jump you manage to clear the street; thankfully the building you were aiming at was lower than the one you were jumping from. You quickly hop, skip and run up another wall to an adjacent taller building when, agh, looks like this next set's gonna be too big to jump straight to.  
  
Oh well.  
  
 ***fwip fwip!*  
**  
"YEEE-HAW!"  
  
One line of Webbing to connect you to a tall building and really make use out of your momentum for a nice swing and another to quickly zip your way over to a building that would've been way too far out of your reach otherwise. Eyes open, keeping them peeled. No crime and you were making slightly better time on these jumps. True, your additional Webbing wasn't reaching an insane new amount, 30% more Webbing in the grand scheme of things didn't mean much when that was just a handful of more uses while moving around...  
  
...  
  
But that was still a 30% increase and you really liked how making that swing cut down on your time going around and finding buildings to easily parkour too.  
  
You sighed, dreaming for a moment as you dared to think of a day where you'd have so much Webbing in one cartridge that you could just Web Swing entirely during a Patrol, just really taking full advantage and going full blow at it. Heck, maybe not even just making a better cartridge but maybe finding a way to comfortably carry more than just the six you currently were. Manhattan had given you a taste, a sweet, sweet taste of all-Webbing travel. It was a bit rich for you, true... but it was still so nice. So much fun!  
  
Just a shame that it was also pretty hard on both your supply and you after a while. While your natural dexterity made this otherwise crazy feat possible for you and pretty easy to accomplish once you could properly pull off some fancy tricks, doing it for hours upon hours and managing the sheer winds of Manhattan was... well, daunting.  
  
...  
  
Still really friggin' fun though!  
  
 **[*Yodeling*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWao9izTMTw)**  
  
Oh hey, Ned! You quickly stopped your hopping, running and swinging around as you came to rest at the edge of a building. Popping a seat you pulled out your phone and quickly accepted the call.  
  
"Ned, hey man, what-"  
  
"No time Peter! Where are you!?"  
  
...  
  
"Uh, I'm in Midwood right now, wh-"  
  
"How close are you to Ocean Parkway?"  
  
...  
  
"You know Ned you're kind of spooking me." You blinked as you looked down at the street. Beyond the sound of Ned's somewhat heavy breathing you could hear... loud ringing? No, not quite ringing... "I'm actually not that far from Ocean Parkway."  
  
"What street are you at?"  
  
"Uh." Man that ringing was getting louder and... well, it wasn't ringing per say. It was lowering and raising in different loops. It was on the tip of your tongue. "Avenue O? Ned what-"  
  
"Okay Pete, you need to get a move on! There's-"  
  
Cop sirens! That's what that sound was! Now you put it together...  
  
...  
  
Mostly because you watched as a four door Chevy zoomed right past you followed by a couple cop cars, your eyes going wide behind your goggles as you watched the vehicle switch and swerve between traffic on both sides of the Parkway, even dipping onto the sidewalk where necessary for it to dodge congestion. The police were having a Hell of a time keeping up with it under those circumstances...  
  
"-... uh, there's..."  
  
"High speed chase?" You ask, standing up as you rolled out your neck.  
  
"Yeah. According to the police broadcast there's four guys in the car, help up a liquor store at gunpoint. They're certain at least two of them have guns, they're not sure about the other two. They're trying to keep back as well they can given how erratically they're driving."  
  
You nodded at that as you cracked your neck.  
  
"Thanks for for the info Ned."  
  
"Sure thing man, kick their asses."  
  
"Will do." With that you turned off the phone and stuffed it into your bag before running to the edge of the building and diving off. After a short drop you shot out a hand and proceeded to Web Swing, chasing after the vehicle. Of course, when you got up to them you'd probably need a plan for how to end their joyride. Probably best to think of that while you were catching up.

You took a deep breath as you casually swung across the buildings of Brooklyn in order to catch up with those crooks. There wasn't time to conserve Webbing through parkour and there really wasn't time to handle this slowly so you just went in. You threw your weight around in that lightly practiced way, using a combination of your strength and the relative positioning of yourself versus the Weblines in order to really push some momentum into your swings, sending yourself flying through the air at speeds you didn't even know you were capable of! Wow, physics was awesome! You kept a careful eye on the car, making sure to always keep it within your line of sight whenever you swung. As much as you really wanted to do some fancy tricks in the middle of all this swinging, doing so much risk them making a random turn and you losing them. Not happening.  
  
You heard some gasps from underneath you as you pursued the vehicle, whether it be from the passing car to the... well, guy swinging several yards above the people's heads, you have no idea. You'd like to think they were looking at you though.  
  
As the car made a tight and very dangerous turn, causing a few cars to stop and nearly pile into each other, the police had to hold back and wait to get around carefully. You, thankfully, didn't have that issue. With another shot out you basically slingshot your way around that long corner, turning your forward momentum into sideways momentum as you continued to pursue the vehicle. Finally you were so close you could see the masks the guys were wearing... they were... wearing Santa masks?!  
  
Come on! Halloween was, like, just yesterday! Couldn't these freaks wait until Black Friday to start being festive like everybody else?  
  
You noticed that a couple guys in the back seat took notice of you swinging just behind them... couldn't blame them, they probably saw you coming from the rearview windows or something. Well, no time like now to make your move!  
  
Time to take a dive! You let go of your last Webline as you fired out a much longer one, anchoring itself on a further part of the next building compared to before. You wanted to get in low and go in fast in order to pull off this stunt you were thinking of. So, with both hands on the Web, you quickly feel down, heart pounding in your chest as the concrete approached. With a deft pull you manage to raise your body into a swing just as the Webline begins to go taut, leaving you in an arc rather than a straight fall down as you approached the concrete. It was so surreal, the way your hoodie just barely grazed against the back of the road as you reached the lowest point of your swing, your body carefully twisting and turning to avoid slamming into any of the cars as you swung in behind the crooks and their vehicle.  
  
Still, it was also thanks to those cars that the crooks wouldn't be able to avoid you, not coming in so fast. You just had one teeny-tiny little thing to take care of first. Squinting one eye behind your goggles you took careful aim at one particular spot at the back of their car; the exhaust pipe. Memories of Uncle Ben cautioning you to keep the exhaust on the cars clear, lest the engine stalled, ran through your mind. Welp, you could thank your lucky stars that one of your guardians was a mechanic; that certainly helped you figure out how to put an end to this chase, or very much slow it down.  
  
You took a deep breath as you waited one last second to line up the shot, your back just barely grazing against the rough road as you hit the absolute low point.  
  
Focus...  
  
 ***fwip!*  
**  
"WOO! BULLSEYE!" You cheered, loud and proud, as the line of Webbing sunk into the tailpipe, immediately gunking it up to the point where you could see it begin to choke back out, the Webbing thickening, ever so slightly, in the air such that it formed a sticky little cork in the car's exhaust pipe. You then waited for that magical sound-  
  
 ***Ker-POOF*  
**  
And just like that the roar of these goofs' engine died out as smoke began to vent from the front of the car. A stall, perfectly timed! Now that should help keep these goons from causing too much more trouble! In the meantime you quickly followed through on the rest of your swing, letting it carry you up into the air. With a grand leap you jumped forward from the Webline and, with grace, landed on top of the car. The four goons jumped, surprise evident on their face as you leaned your head forward, looking at them through their front windshield.  
  
"Hey! You guys my Uber? You were supposed to pick me up ten minutes ago! I'm afraid I'm gonna have to call your boss about this." You watch the four Santa Claus masks looking back at you... you can't quite see their eyes but you imagine they're as creeped out as you are right now.  
  
"What are you two idiots waiting for, waste him!" Immediately the two guys im the back seat listen to the driver and pull out a couple pistols-  
  
 ***zzzzrrrrrIIIiiiinnnng*  
**  
-wow Spider Sense wasn't even phased. Pretty cool. Still you followed the vague guiding direction of your Spider Sense, ducking and dipping out of the way of two shots that, had you not reacted, would've hit you. As soon as they saw you still on top of the roof and having freshly hopped around to avoid all incoming fire you grinned under your mask as you looked back down at them, plotting how to pull these guys out of the car. When, suddenly, the guy violently swerved... oh, he was trying to knock you off the car! It would be cuter if it weren't for the fact that he swerved right onto the sidewalk with a hot dog stand in front of it!  
  
"HEY, MOVE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Thankfully people didn't need your somewhat high pitched scream to tell them to get out of the way of the out of control car as the momentum slammed it into the hot dog stand. Well, at least no one got-  
  
 ***ZZZZZRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNG!*  
**  
'OW, WHAT? SPIDER SENSE, WHY SO LOUD, THEY WEREN'T EVEN SHOOTING-'  
  
 ***Clunk*  
**  
"AGH!" Years of reflexes from paper balls being thrown at your head kicked in as you grabbed your head, some solid... thing having clunked onto it in the midst of all those hot dogs. At the last second the car swerved again and, with your grip only half on and not even really all that focused you end up finding yourself thrown from the vehicle! "Oh jeez!" You quickly did a backflip through the air as you were tossed from the car, landing on your feet, tucking into a roll, and then breaking into a small sprint as you immediately recovered...  
  
And saw the hot dog stand's umbrella bouncing away in the wind, it having been what clocked you in the head.  
  
...  
  
"Not gonna lie, this is a little embarrassing." You muttered before taking aim at the car, which with its slowing speed had only gotten about ten yards from you.  
  
You quickly fired off a line of Webbing, grinning as it easily stuck to the back of the vehicle. Now for the slightly hard part. You used your Wall Crawling abilities to help dig your feet into the ground, sticking to it as you kept a firm grip on your Webbing. You weren't trying to stop the car but you were trying to use its momentum to really stretch the Webbing out, add a lot of energy. Before the line could snap you immediately unstuck your feet and, with a spring of energy, the tightened Web pulled itself back, slinging you off the ground and right onto the back of the vehicle. The four goons all jumped in surprised, likely having figured your tumble ensured that they wouldn't be seeing you again. Well, sorry to disappoint them.  
  
"Guys, please, take it easy! If you keep this up they might just take your licenses away!" You joked at the two goons turned their guns back on you. The back window of the vehicle shattered as they fired straight through it, you immediately ducking and dodging in order to avoid the bullets However... well, you were careless. As you positioned one of your hands for another quick duck around it slipped, causing you to slam forward on the car a bit when-  
  
 ***Bang!*  
**  
A bullet grazed your side, tearing straight through your sweatshirt and cutting a small trench along your side. You wince, resisting the urge to grab it as your heart momentarily sped up. Holy cow, you just got shot! It... it didn't hurt nearly as badly as you were expecting, being perfectly honest. Although that was probably more because the guy winged you. If he'd gotten a solid hit in then that probably would've really hurt. Still... you were going to take your first bullet wound like a man if nothing else.  
  
"OW, YOU DICK!" You cried out at you glared at the two guys from behind your goggles, both of whom were staring incredulously at you as you stuck to the back of the car. Again the driver wildly swung the vehicle about, trying to force you off... but the car was going far too slowly now. There would be no hot dog stand umbrellas to knock you loose this time! You watched as the guy with the money fidgeted, biting his lip as he and his friends all watched the car stall out, slowing down, while you stuck around.  
  
"Okay, I've had about enough of being shot at for one day." With a quick motion of your hands you fire off two lines of Webbing and easily end up attaching them to the two guys' guns, the two fellas barely even having time to react before you forced the guns out of their hands and, with a toss, connected the Weblines to a passing street light overhead. "Now then if you'll excuse me!" With a roll forward you sprung into the back seat of the car through the shot out back window, flipping again mid-air so that you might land comfortably on your ass as you stretched out your arms and legs. In the middle of doing so you flip up the masks of the two goons behind you, the face of Father Christmas falling away to reveal...  
  
"Oh man, _Fast and The Furious_ lied to me. You people are just as attractive as regular criminals... which is to say you're both kind of ugly." Immediately the flabbergasted expression on both of their faces was replaced by... well, rage. Lots of it. They immediately swung for you, one guy going so far off that he nearly clobbered his friend, while the other... well, you quickly spun around and ducked, easily avoiding the blow as you casually leaned back in your spot. "Yeah, I'd say you guys are about done. Police are catching up and you guys are pretty much dead in the water with his car."  
  
The two guys up front, seeming to get your point... unbuckled their seat belts and then opened the car doors?  
  
Oh hey! How cute, they all were buckled up!  
  
"Hey now, you guys might've worn your seat belts but failing to break one law doesn't mean you get to ignore all the other road laws you broke." With that you easily fired off two lines of Webbing onto the doors and pulled with a good deal of strength, slamming them shut. The driver winced, his arm bruised by the force of the shut as he pulled back into the car. The other guy was very nearly unfortunate as his arm got caught in the door, his shoulder sounding like it was threatening to pop out of socket before, with the little space you allowed for, her pulled his body all the way back in while you slammed the door shut. The two back seat goons once again tried to pulverize you but you just did a nice little duck and dip to have the blows sail over your head before sticking the Webbing to the backseat.  
  
"Alright, now that we're all here, maybe I can talk you guys into-" Your eyes go slightly wide as the two goons in the front seat actually manage to rip your Webbing, tearing it apart with a fear and panic of men very close to being captured. You then saw that same panic carry them into their only logical action, considering you'd just web them back into the car or web the doors shut in their faces again...  
  
They both threw themselves against their respective side windows...  
  
And both of them were very pitifully bounced back, with only a slight bruise to show for it.  
  
"Wow... I'm not even going to lie. I'm very sad for you right now. That was just embarrassing." The four crooks just glared at you... though those glares didn't last for long. You could hear why too; the sound of police sirens were getting louder and louder. That wasn't much of a surprise either; the car had basically come to a dead stop, its engine stalled out and its momentum having been thoroughly wasted. They were just all sitting there and the police were taking it as their moment to move in...  
  
Probably for the best you didn't have a word with the local authorities all things considered... but did you want to hop in, distract them, and then run so that the police could finish all this?  
  
Hmmm... decisions, decisions.

"Welp boys, as much fun as this has been it sounds like the police are about ready to get here. Time for me to wrap you guys up for... ugh, you see, you nearly had me make a Christmas quip! It's been, like, one day since Halloween happened!" You quickly shot both of your Web Shooters, aiming at the back of the thieves' heads as they recovered from bouncing off of their windows. The Weblines easily connected and, with a mighty tug, you forced the goons back into their seats before sticking the Webbing to the back seat. There, that should-  
  
 ***Rip!*  
**  
"Oh come on, that stuff's strong! What are you, some kind of circus performer?" You watch, eyes glazed over somewhat in annoyance as you watched the money guy force open the door again, ready to make his escape. Annoyed but not worried because, as you deftly dodged another punch that your Spider Sense gave you a quick alarm about, you quickly aimed both of your Web Shooters once more.  
  
"I mean really, Santa masks? You guys couldn't have gone for something more appropriate for November like, I dunno, a turkey mask or a pilgrim mask? Something that fits a little better with the fact that we haven't even gotten to December!" You quickly ducked around and shot both of your Web Shooters, sticking the back of the money guy's head again and sticking one of the goon's hands to the back seat. You quickly pull and force them to get stuck, sticking the Webbing on a nice secure anchor while you left the three of them there to struggle, turning to the last guy. "So, how about it champ? Want to take another swing?"  
  
...  
  
The last goon just unbuckled himself and made for his door, forcing it open as he got ready to run.  
  
"I figured."  
  
The sound of police sirens pulling up to the vehicle, car doors being opened, alerts you to the fact that you don't exactly have a lot of time left. So you're quick to just fire off a blast of Webbing, sticking it to the guy's back before pulling him back into the car and anchoring the Webline to the roof. All four thieves try their best to force themselves free... and all four find themselves utterly stuck.  
  
Finally.  
  
"Anyway, thanks for being such good sports guys. I'm glad you at least let me have a final _sleigh_ in all of this... agh. Bah humbug." With that bit of Christmas bah humbug you quickly crawl your way out the broken out back window, easily sliding your way out just like you slid your way back in. As you made your way onto the trunk... well, you came face to face with the police officers as they made their way out of their own vehicles, both of you just kind of staring at each other like deer caught in some headlights. On top of that... seems like your antics drew quite a crowd, including the occupants of the various vehicles that had stopped or gotten out of the way of the crook's car while it'd been in motion.  
  
Well, one Hell of a way to make a public debut, you guess!  
  
"Hey! Don't move!"  
  
"Sorry can't hear you over all this traffic!" With that you quickly ran back over the hood of the car, making a break for it by sprinting as fast as your considerable physical talents would let you, easily weaving a path over the crook's car and through stopped traffic. You quickly eye a point to jump up and start Web Swinging and so made your preparations.  
  
"You have the right-"  
  
"To remain silent, I know, I've watched Law and Order! I'm afraid that I can't really go through the rest of the spiel with you today officers so, uh, Merry Early Christmas I guess?"  
  
You take a mighty leap off of some guy's car, propelling yourself high into the air before shooting your hand out and firing, your Webbing easily anchoring itself to the corner of a nearby building as you started to swing away.  
  
The crowd beneath you gasps in surprise, by this point their words little more than mutters as you start to swing away as fast and as far as you can. You chance a glance behind you but, thankfully, it seems like the police are busy prioritizing the thieves you webbed up rather than chasing you down. Good. With a mighty swing you kicked yourself up onto the roof of a nearby building, the excited, and sometimes nervous, chatter of the crowd beneath you slowly dying away as you parkoured your way across the Bronx, building as much distance as you could while also trying to keep out of view. After a solid dozen or so minutes of this you finally stop, taking a quick breather as you looked around.  
  
...  
  
Okay, so no helicopters are chasing after you.  
  
Good! Good sign! You didn't even... wait no, there was the sound of sirens in the distance... but they weren't coming toward you and weren't really all that loud to begin with. Figured they'd look for the vigilante but, well, seems like you gave the beat cops the slip pretty easily with your mobility.  
  
Good, good good...  
  
Well, not good but, well, good for you not being caught but bad because you were technically escaping from the law... then again you'd already technically broken the law, but...  
  
Agh, being a vigilante was complicated. It left you feeling sore... like... in your chest...  
  
Wait that wasn't metaphorical feelings soreness that was actual soreness...  
  
Oh right!  
  
You lift up the side of your shirt and take a good look at your bullet wound, deciding to take a good look at the damage. Thankfully it actually seems like it had, indeed, only winged you earlier, a formerly bleeding graze of flesh left at the spot where you'd taken the hit. It was sore, better believe it still pulsed with some pain, but it wasn't terrible and it didn't sting nearly as much as when you first got shot. Plus it was even already pretty much scabbed over, likely a gift from your Healing Factor. Well hey would you look at that; first big, public showing out in front of a lot of people and your first gunshot wound both going pretty well all things considered!  
  
You quickly lowered your sweatshirt and took notice of the bullet hole leftover. You groaned before spraying the spot with some Webbing; both to apply a little pressure to make sure everything would stay nice down there and to cover the hole so you wouldn't get chills while running. That seemed to do it for the last of your Webbing too.  
  
Man, good thing you upgraded before coming out. You really needed just about every last drop of the stuff for today. You ejected the cartridges and then replaced them, rolling out your risk as you pocketed the empty ones.  
  
You know what? All things considered, today was a pretty dang good day.  
  
With that you quickly fired out another strand of fresh Webbing before zooming off, looking to finish out the rest of your patrol before going back to Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house.


	19. Boardgames

"Uh, Aunt May? Shouldn't we start with like your sewing machine or something? I mean, I'm a fan of the old school way of doing things myself but, well, doesn't it just seem like it'd be... faster to start me out on the tech? Maybe learn a little... design work?" It's not necessarily that you were in a hurry; it would be a while yet before you'd put the money together to pay for the materials you'd need for your second costume and it's not like that bullet hole in your current suit... well, 'suit' was going anywhere. Really you didn't even so much mind the slow pace of stitching these seams into place. With your hands so dexterous and agile it was actually pretty easy for you to pick up the mechanical aspect of sewing if nothing else.  
  
No, you needed to learn how to measure things out and design them, how to get good at that. Starting with the sewing machine on top of that would really speed up your progress for when you did really start going ham on your costumes or when they needed a good clean fix. Your future costume all depended on this... so understandably you were a little anxious.  
  
Which made Aunt May's slight giggle, thoroughly amused by your attitude, all the more embarrassing when the older woman turned it on you.  
  
"Peter, I appreciate that you're so excited but you should know by now that crafts like these take time. You don't become a skilled artist in a day and you certainly don't learn to sew like your old Aunt May without picking up the basics first. Trust me, I'll move you onto the next few steps at the right time. Which, you know, you are getting the hang of this rather well Peter! Just keep at it and you'll be doing more fancy stuff in no time." You smiled earnestly as you continued with your needlework. "I am so pleased that you're taking this up though! I know boys your age tend to get a little defensive when you do stuff that seems, well, 'girly' but sewing's an important life skill! Why, I can't tell you the number of shirts or pants I saved that we would've had to buy replacements for otherwise!"  
  
Yeah, you could barely imagine having to go through the pain of getting another sweatshirt like the one you were using for your costume and painting the logo on the chest again. If it took serious damage that wouldn't just be a tiny bullet hole... well, it would be nice to be able to just stitch it back together rather than have to spend money for a whole new costume. Heck, you were already thinking about that for your next costume and the savings potential of all of this pretty much spoke for itself! Aunt May was right, this really was a nifty little life skill...  
  
...  
  
Granted, no one, but no one, would know about this. Maybe Ned if you were feeling brave but no one else. God above, if Flash Thompson figured out you sewed, woo boy. It wouldn't be as bad as the Peter Pan debacle but he'd ride that gravy train for at least a couple days. No thank you.  
  
"Peter, don't get distracted now! We're just getting into my favorite part of the lesson! Cross-stitching!"  
  
...  
  
Yay? **  
  
*Knock Knock!*  
**  
"May darling, It's me! Anna! You didn't forget about our little get together this evening, did you?"  
  
...  
  
You slowly turned to look at Aunt May, your older relative's eyes having gone wide as dishes as she looked at the front door, her jaw ever so slightly agape.  
  
"You forgot board game night with Anna?" You asked in a whisper, Aunt May flustering for a moment before the she turned to look at you, leaning over the table in a slight hurry as she whispered back at you.  
  
"I was so excited about you wanting to learn how to sew that I completely forgot! Oh goodness, that woman won't let me live it down if she figures that out. I can hear the jabs about my memory already." You withhold a snort, feeling so sympathetic but so amused at the same time. You knew that Aunt May and Miss Anna Watson were good friends, so the jabs would've been in good humor. Still to see Aunt May so flustered over the idea of one of her friends picking on her? Well, it tickled you to say the very least.  
  
"Well what are you gonna do Aunt May? She's at the front door and I doubt she's gonna wait patiently for long." You say with an amused smirk, as Aunt May turned back at you with a frown... one that very quickly turned into an amused smirk of her own. Oh God, why did this suddenly feel like it was going to go really badly for you?  
  
"Peter... my dear, sweet Peter." Oh boy, here it comes. "Won't you be a dear and go... entertain Anna Watson for a bit? It has been so long since the two of you properly had some time to talk and I'm sure she'd love to hear about what you've been up to since the last time." There it was.  
  
"So you want me to go to the front door and stall for you while you put the sewing stuff away and prep the board games?"  
  
"I... yes, that's exactly what I want you to do Peter. Please?"  
  
...  
  
Well... you'd be a huge prick if you asked for, and got, sewing lessons from your Aunt May, lessons she really didn't have to give you, and then turned around and left her out in the cold in her hour of need. Would be a real dick move...  
  
"I dunno..." You coyly tap your chin, an amused smile on your face as you looked to tease Aunt May just a bit. For a moment the she seemed genuinely worried... before she took notice of the expression on your face and just rolled her eyes. You gave her a silent nod as you got up off the chair, working yourself up to go to that front door while Aunt May started to put the sewing kit away. Honestly, you really shouldn't say you were working up to it. Anna was really a nice woman, really! She was an old friend of your Aunt's and has always been a rather kind next door neighbor. Heck, whenever Aunt May or Uncle Ben were too sick or too busy, or some combination, to take you somewhere like school she was usually willing to pitch in and help out by taking you herself. So you had nothing against her, really and you really shouldn't have felt like this was such a big ask...  
  
But... well...  
  
You opened the front door and saw a somewhat [heavier seat woman](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/9/96/Anna_May_%28Earth-18119%29_from_Amazing_Spider-Man_Renew_Your_Vows_Vol_1_1_0002.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20170809011449) with blonde, if fading, hair that reached down to her shoulders. She was dressed up in some winter clothes and thickly bundled up to keep out the cold as she looked down at you. Immediately upon spotting you the woman gave a loud gasp, a smile working its way onto her face as she chuckled.  
  
"Oh my goodness gracious! Who's this little man in front of me? Can't be Peter Parker. Why, last I remembered you were all cute and dressed up for Halloween right outside my doorstep."  
  
It wasn't that you were avoiding her because she saw your stupid Peter Pan Halloween costume! No, not at all! Really, it wasn't! But as the woman reached down and grabbed you up in a bear hug... well, Anna May Watson could be a handful, if you did say so yourself. Despite her size and age the woman was lively and energetic. She was a really touchy sort of person too which, hey, you weren't necessarily against on principle but at fifteen was just kind of awkward to you. Even from your Aunt and Uncle, the latter of whom picked up on it and treated you more like, well, one of the guys accordingly.  
  
Plus Anna May... well, she kind of had the force of attitude and forwardness of a crazy cat lady; someone who was really eager to talk to someone because they spent most of their time talking to animals. Which was weird because you knew that Miss Anna May had kids of her owns and, last you heard, even a grandchild...  
  
Can people still become crazy cat ladies even if they have family to fawn over?  
  
God you hoped not, otherwise Aunt May... then again you probably weren't as allergic to cats as you were before the Spider bite.  
  
"H-Hey Mrs. Watson." You said, awkwardly, as you scratched the back of your head, the older woman just giving a great, guffawing laugh as she waved you off.  
  
"Oh Peter dear, you Parkers don't have to be so formal with me! You especially; why I remember when you were a little boy and-" And you were already mentally tuning out for the next few seconds. Whatever super embarrassing, scarring story that Anna May had from your childhood about when you did some super embarrassing thing you were more glad to just ignore it rather than go through the mental scarring of remembering it. "-oh boy, I thought Mr. Terrance from next door was going to have a heart attack and die, hahaha!" You tuned back in just as Anna finished, offering an embarrassed smile and a nod as you tried to give the impression that you were listening the entire time. "Anyway, point is Peter, you can call me Anna. All my friends do, after all."  
  
"Yeah, sorry about that Anna just, you know, been a while..." You murmured as you awkwardly scratched the back of your head.  
  
"It has been. As much as I'd love to catch up Peter, your Aunt May and I have a little fun planned for this evening! I plan on whipping her butt at a little game of Monopoly! She's been ducking me because of the Halloween Rush but she can't duck me no more!"  
  
"AS IF I'M DUCKING YOU ANNA! I've been good to go all month, you've just been hiding over there!" You heard Aunt May call from the kitchen, earning uproarious laughter from Anna and an amused snort from yourself before Aunt May seemed to remember the game plan. "A-Anyway there's really no rush!"  
  
"May Parker... did you forget game night? I swear May, your memory, it-"  
  
"I didn't forget game night! I just mean that Peter really missed you and wanted to catch up! Why, he had such an exciting... thing to talk to you about, isn't that right Peter?"  
  
Oh man. That was so cold Aunt May. Hanging you out to dry like that. [You were gonna remember that](https://cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/main_wide/public/2017/05/telltale-the-walking-dead.jpg?itok=GOqLWXxw).  
  
"Oh! Is that so, were you excited to share a little bit of news with me, Peter? Oh do tell! What was it? You finally join a little club? You and Ned do something exciting..." Anna gave a quick gasp, a wide smile on her face as her excitement seemed to bubble over. "Don't tell me I should go from calling you a little man to a Mr. Man?" What did that even mean, you don't even- "Did you get yourself a little girlfriend?" Your eyes went wide as saucers as Anna May Watson seemed to practically bubble over with the potential gossip...  
  
The gossip...  
  
Gossip being spread around the neighborhood...  
  
Gossip spread by Anna May Watson who talked to literally everyone in the neighborhood. Who would spread this kind of misinformation to anyone she possibly could have and more if she felt like sharing it on Facebook and Twitter. Gossip that would spread so far that... no.... no. No!  
  
 _"Huehahahahaha! Hey, Puny Parker! Heard you got yourself a girlfriend! She invisible, or is her name Miss Left Hand?"_  
  
OH GOD! OH GOD NO, YOU HAD TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING, COME UP WITH ANYTHING!

"Uh... well, first off, no none of that. It's just kind of awkward because... well, I wouldn't call it exciting per say. I mean, it's just kind of exciting to me personally." Okay Peter, you needed to come up with bullshit. You needed to bullshit harder than you've ever bullshit anyone in your entire life. Aunt May had just essentially thrown you under the bus and now it was your job to Wall Crawl your way out from underneath it very much alive! Okay, fun metaphor to think of but that wasn't going to help you with spinning some yarn that Anna May would buy herself. So think Peter, think! If you told an outright lie she probably wouldn't buy it unless it was something perfectly balanced; something she wanted to buy but that wasn't too outlandish. Considering that wasn't your forte, you abandoned that train of thought?  
  
Asthma? No, probably not just a little over a month after a 'major attack' like you suffered at Oscorp. You have to figure that Aunt May brought that up or, Hell, that even Anna would just figure it. After all, it was all over the news and it was your class' tour that Vulture interrupted. Maybe... maybe a half lie. Explaining something without giving its full context...  
  
Maybe you were looking at this from the wrong angle. Maybe instead of trying to give her something juicy to sink her teeth into you could try boring her out of her skull. Like, make her so bored that she didn't even want to be in the conversation anymore. That... was an idea. Probably the best idea you had. Okay so what had you been looking into lately that you could write off in the most boring terms possible that no one could possibly care about? Your costume? No, that would lead to talk of sewing which, hey, would end up on Facebook. Exercise? Asthma. School? Boring yes but adults seemed to love to hear people drone on about school and you couldn't stand to make that exciting.  
  
Your Webbing. Nah, what could you even talk about? Its adhesive qualities?  
  
...  
  
Hey.  
  
Wait a minute.  
  
"Oh now Peter, don't talk like that. If its exciting to you then it must be thrilling! Now come on dear boy, let's hear it."  
  
...  
  
Well she did ask for it.  
  
"Alright so, uh, I've actually been looking into adhesives lately. It's a bit of a weird subject I know but they're a relatively simple compound most of the time so it lets me make use of my chemistry set within reasonable limits. I've actually been testing out a lot of different combinations of varying kinds of adhesives to see what helps to affect stickiness the most and what makes it long lasting and in some cases pliable. I've been working with your basic glues, yeah, but I've also been branching out into liquid Nylon treated with adhesive substances in order to help create a sticky adhesive that wouldn't get too hard and plastic-y when it dried so that it'd be able to better handle wear and tear from movement. It's actually really fascinating because I know most people-"  
  
For a moment, it looks like your ruse is working! Anna May is slowly getting more and more bored by the second, though the poor woman does try her best to hide it. Still, it's in the way that she fidgets, the way her eyes subtly glance around for something else to hold her attention, the way she just slowly nods rather than engaging with all the technobabble you're throwing out there! For a moment it seems like everything is coming together...  
  
Then suddenly there's a spark in her eye, a sudden flash of realization. You watch as a wry grin works its way over Anna May's face as she raises a finger to silence you for a moment.  
  
"May Reilly Parker! Did you send your darling nephew out here to stall for time while you set up our board game?" You wince; busted. You hear some rattling from the kitchen as Aunt May... fake cusses, a 'darn it' released as you can audibly hear Monopoly pieces scattering for a moment.  
  
"... No?" Wow, even to you Aunt May's reply came off as flaccid. Anna May just ended up laughing and laughing as she reared her head back, waving her hand in the air as she looked down at you, quite amused.  
  
"Oh you Parker men and your wily ways. Your Uncle Ben tried to talk cars a while back when your Aunt forgot some time ago too. You should just let her accept her memory's going, Peter, first step to solving a problem after all." A groan of embarrassment emanated from the kitchen as you just chuckled, Anna May giving you a warm smile as she crossed her arms. "So tell me Peter, honestly. Do you not have something exciting going on?" You took a moment, your mind roaming.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


_["Getting strong noooooooow!  
  
Won't be long noooooooow!  
  
Getting strong nooooooow!"](https://youtu.be/ioE_O7Lm0I4?t=107)_  
  
Okay so it was still cheesy but damn if it didn't just get your blood pumping. You pumped your arms and ran as fast as you could up and down the tracks, really letting the air blow past your... well, your mask as you continued your sprint in the chilly Winter air. The heat your body produced was off-setting the cold but, at the same time, made the cold feel more... bracing. It was a rush, a sensation you never got to properly experience before getting these powers because of your Asthma. Now though? Now you properly understood what it meant to be strong, fast and hardy.  
  
You sprinted down the train line, heading back to your hideout as part of the end of the run. As alive as you felt you were starting to wear out and now seemed like a good time to call off the training and get your butt back home so you could finish today's homework. As you approached the train station though... well, you had an idea. Once you had it you couldn't help yourself. Instead of slowing down you kept running right up to the wall. With a quick little maneuver you started running up the wall, using your Wall Crawling ability to climb up and up the side of the building.  
  
 _"Gonna fly nooooooooow!  
  
Flying high noooooooow!  
  
Gonna flyyyyyyyyyyy!_  
  
 _Flyyyyyyyyyyyyy!  
  
FLYYYYYYYYYYYY!"  
_  
As you stepped over the last lip of the building, ascending to the very top of it you started to hop around and jab, throwing some ghost punches before throwing both of your hands up in the air, jumping and leaping around before you gave a mighty leap, trying your damnedest to freeze yourself mid-air.  
  
...  
  
Your damnedest wasn't enough and gravity pulled you back down to the ground. Still, smiling beneath your mask, you shrugged your shoulders, pulled out your earbuds and got ready to head back home.  
  
Man you'd always wanted to do that. **  
  
**

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"Ah... not really Anna. Just you know. Peter Parker things... yeah, just Peter Parker things..."  
  
God it felt so weird to say that now. You knew in your mind that your life really had changed and turned around but... well, your life really was just so different know. The old Peter Parker could say this and it'd still be boring, unenthusiastic, dull stuff that he and Ned enjoyed but not many other people. Quiet life of being a nerd.  
  
"Oh now don't you fret Peter. Peter Parker things are plenty exciting and plenty good. You'll see one day when you're a fancy pants scientist!" You smiled warmly at that... though that smile turned into a slight frown when Anna May pinched your cheek. First off, uncomfortable, second off, _ow._ Woman had the pinching power of a crab. "Now then, if you'll excuse me Peter." You nodded as Anna May walked in past you, causing you to wince as you heard her laughter ring out again. "May, really? Sending your sweet nephew out to try to buy some time? Are you that ashamed of how forgetful you are, little lady?"  
  
"Oh Anna honestly. If I remember correctly, a certain someone needed Ben's help when she forgot her keys on the nightstand."  
  
"Oh, well, that was just... my hand slipped when I tried to grab them and I pocketed some loose change is all! Besides, that confounded security system automatically locking the house behind you when you punch in the code is just inane. It should require a key!" You smiled as you walked back into the kitchen. Sure enough while Aunt May had successfully cleared out the sewing stuff, she hadn't set up the game board yet. As Anna May put her purse on a nearby counter she offered you a soft smile. "Peter, could you be a dear and help your Aunt and I? It'll take forever for us to get started if we're putting everything together ourselves. Think you could prepare a little snack for us."  
  
"Oh Anna, that isn't necessary, Peter-"  
  
"I can totally do it! It'd only take a minute." Aunt May raised her hand but Anna just laughed, waving her off.  
  
"May please. The boy's willing and it's not like a bowl of chips is gonna stress his lungs out any. You need to relax." You watch as your Aunt deflates a bit, causing you to grin as you got to work on preparing the snacks for their game night. "Now then, you remember what we talked about last time, right?"  
  
"Your brother right? Talking to him about moving back to New York right?"  
  
"Exactly right. I understood him leaving for his own reasons back in the day but now with that little girl of his growing up and getting to be so... ah, May, it's like looking at me back when we were in High School." You winced a little at the thought of an _even more_ energetic and eccentric Anna May Watson as you finished with the snacks. "A girl like her needs to be in a city, the Sticks aren't any place for a girl with as much energy as her to be."  
  
"Oh come now Anna, smaller towns are quite nice. Ben and I considered moving there once we decided to move out of The Bronx after all." Oh you knew they decided to move to Queens but didn't know they considered leaving New York entirely.  
  
"But you didn't. You stayed here in town, May. So you have to know-"  
  
"We did stay but we did move to Queens. A lot of this town just isn't good for raising a family Anna."  
  
"You say that but you didn't move out to Staten Island, didja?" Anna May threw her head back and gave another laugh as May shrugged, conceding that point as Anna May shook her head. "You get what I mean though May. For a girl like Mary she needs to live somewhere that can stimulate her. Really challenge her and let her spend all that energy of hers. I know she's got to be going stir crazy out there."  
  
"I'm guessing your brother didn't end up agreeing then?" Anna scoffed as she rolled her eyes.  
  
"That boy used to listen to me when we were kids. Knew to listen to his older sister. Now he thinks he's an adult and doesn't need Anna May's advice." Anna rolled her eyes as May frowned, sipping her cup.  
  
"Really though Anna, she'll be able to drive on her own soon enough and she can come to New York whenever she wants. I can understand your brother's concerns to a point; raising a family somewhere nice, quiet and... well, you know. He's probably just concerned about doing right by Mary's well-being." May said as she set up the Monopoly board, causing Anna to grin slightly.  
  
"Would you feel the same way if we were talking about Peter? Imagine that boy's brain rotting out in Upstate school rather than having a chance here in the Big Apple." Aunt May frowned a bit at that.  
  
"Now Anna, you and I both know how rough finding a good school can be even here." May started laying out the starting money as she smiled over at you. "Besides, Peter's a smart enough boy that he'd be able to succeed no matter where he was. New York's just home for us is all, that's why Ben and I ended up staying." Awww, that was actually nice of Aunt May to say. She had that much faith in you huh?  
  
"May." Anna shook her head, tutting slightly before she looked over at you. "Well why don't we ask the little man himself. Peter, do you really think you could stand to live in some tiny little corner of nowhere rather than living in New York City?"  
  
Wow you got pulled in again. Fun... and decidedly more awkward since it seemed like Anna, May and her brother were in the middle of a bit of an active fight.  
  
Well... uh...

"I mean..." You kind of let your hands clap together for a moment as you try to think, give this question a real good sit in your mind. You got what Aunt May was trying to say; a peaceful, cozy little town sounded nice enough in it's own way. Less smog so your asthma back in the day wouldn't have been as triggered and so long as you kept out of the woods maybe not so much pollen, right? Then again without New York City you wouldn't have your Spider Powers, wouldn't be able to be a superhero. Wouldn't have access to so many libraries and universities. On the other hand, New York was expensive to live in; Aunt May and Uncle Ben had to work really hard to be able to live in this town and support you. Plus... well, you were getting a good first hand picture of how dangerous New York could be.  
  
On the other hand though it was where all your friends were...  
  
On the other other hand, it's not like you couldn't make friends elsewhere right? There was bound to be nerds wherever you went right? They might not be as fun or awesome as Ned but you could make more friends, surely.  
  
Then again, internet.  
  
... Then again internet was everywhere now.  
  
Right?  
  
...  
  
Well... you didn't know.  
  
Maybe that was the core of why you were so indecisive. You knew New York City and all the amazing stuff in it, sure... but that also meant you knew its warts, what sucked about New York, what made living here rough. On the other hand you didn't know what would be so bad about living in a smaller town... but by that same notion you didn't know what would be good about it compared to New York. In the end... it just left you with one conclusion.  
  
"I don't know?" You kind of shrug your shoulders as you scratch your nose. "I mean, living in New York is all I've ever known. My life's here and it's been here. I don't know if a small town would be better because I've never been there. So... I just really have no point of comparison. New York's the only home I've ever known." You say as you put the snacks out on the table for the two older women. Anna May seems a bit disappointed by that non-answer but Aunt May just smiles warmly at you and nods.  
  
"I think that's a good way of thinking about it Peter. We shouldn't judge people, places and experiences we've never had a hand in trying. It helps keep an open mind." You smile a bit; well that's not exactly what you were going for but... well, she did have a point and, looking at it from that perspective, keeping an open mind rather than shutting it out was probably a little better as far as things went. Hell, if you didn't have an open mind you probably wouldn't be a superhero right now.  
  
"All I know is that my brother and I were raised here and we turned out just fine. Better for it even." You and Aunt May look at each other, shrug, and just let Anna take a moment to heave a breath. "Who knows, maybe that wife of his will talk some sense into him." Finally Anna seemed to get her angst out and went back to grinning, looking at the perfectly set up table. "Now then, enough of all this belly aching! Let's get to playing May! I have a good feeling about this time!"  
  
"Anna, you've said that the last five times we've played." May said with a wry grin as the two of them got set up. "Thank you Peter. You really didn't have to do so much but I do really appreciate it."  
  
"Hey it's no problem Aunt May, glad to help... though I'll remember you throwing me under the bus! I swear it!" You watch as Aunt May blushes slightly, Anna cackling like a madwoman as you made for the upstairs. The weekend was coming up and man were you ready for it!


	20. Music Choices

"Easy there Parker, you don't go strengthening the bonds between molecules by getting into a rush. Just try your best to keep your cool and to keep your hands steady."  
  
Honestly if you were being upfront with yourself, you really didn't need these mantras anymore. Back in the day when you had far less steady, dexterous and agile hands you were prone to slipping and fumbling and losing your grip easily on things. Such that keeping your mind focused on what you were doing, keeping your mind on your hands and keeping them steady, was just how you ensured that there wouldn't be a lab accident. Now a days though it really wasn't a problem; you had a strong, firm grip thanks to your super strength and you had really quick fingers such that, even if you did drop something, you'd be quick to catch it and bring it back into position.  
  
Hell, that wasn't even adding into the scenario the fact that you had your Wall Crawling abilities to make things literally stick to you. Dropping things was pretty much a thing of the past these days. Still, these mantras, these thoughts that ran though your mind, they were a good way of just keeping your focus on your work, of keeping your mind where it needed to be. Namely, in this case, improving the tensile strength of your Webbing. The car chase earlier this week had been a bit of a rough moment; the number of times those guys had gotten lucky and ended up tearing your webs apart was... well, annoying. Not detrimental, if you were being real, just annoying. You really didn't want something like that to happen again if you could help it... so you were going to try your best to help it.  
  
The main way you were looking at improving the strength of the Webbing wasn't to thicken it and go back on your hard work with the ammunition. No, you were looking at the actual formula itself, the tensile strength of it and how hardy the stuff was. If you could just improve its base strength, make it a lot rougher and a lot tougher, that would be your best bet. But how? You considered a few options when, well, it came to you; Carbon. Carbon with no impurities, and especially carbon molecules that were tightly stitched together, could produce one of the hardest substances in the world like diamonds. Now it could also be fragile if the carbon you were using was just very, very impure or had few carbon atoms forming together into am olecule like pencil lead. So you needed to be careful as to what purity and strength you were using and in what amount. After all, make it too strong and it would make the Webbing completely inflexible which... well, you know, kind of bad for your Web Slinging, Web Swinging and everything else you needed to use your Webbing for.  
  
Now then... for the mixture and to properly... add...  
  
... this and that and... done?  
  
You raised your eyebrow as you raised your goggles, letting some of the Webbing out of the container you were working with it in so that you could test it. Alright, get the weights, secure one end here and secure the other to the scale... and... slowly... slowly....  
  
Done! You smiled as you pumped your arm, grinning like a loon as you looked at the total. It wasn't a massive increase to strength, mind, but massive increases like that were probably best saved for a complete overhaul of the formula rather than little tweaks here and there. Still though, for what you put in this was a nice and notable increase. Alright, now it's time to just go ahead and put this formula into some cartridges and get ready, you had plans for this weekend to go out and patrol and-  
  
"Hey Peter! You down there?"  
  
Oh!  
  
"Uh, yeah Uncle Ben, I'm down here. What's up?" You leaned back in your chair to get a good look upstairs, seeing your Uncle Standing at the top of the basement steps as he nodded at ya.  
  
"Listen sport, I just got back from work and I'm feelin' a bit exhausted... but the music shop just got in that Springsteen album I've been keeping my eye on! Mind running over and picking it up before they run out of stock again, Pete? I know it isn't a great walk for you and I'd do it myself but..."  
  
Yeah, Uncle Ben would do it himself if he wasn't tired from work. You knew that for a fact. Hey, patrols could always come later, right? If Uncle Ben was asking then-  
  
"Sure Uncle Ben, I just need to clean up and then I'll head right over, okay?"  
  
"Thank ya kiddo, appreciate it." You smile warmly as your Uncle closed the door, leaving you to your business as you quickly put the Webbing into the cartridges. Patrol later, for now, run... er, maybe jog over to the music store. Walk if anyone can see you.  
  
That sounded good.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Woof. The weather itself might've been a little seasonally warm but those winds were chilly. Wouldn't be too long before Winter would be blowing on down on New York in full, you were sure. Either way, you breathed a slight sigh of relief as you stepped into the music store, V.P. Record Distributors, as you quickly readjusted your glasses and jacket. It was a quaint little shop at around your own neighborhood, nothing too fancy or ostentatious as part of a larger one story brick building. You quickly walk up to the front of the shop, noticing the man working behind the register is reading a magazine, some kind of music mag by the looks of it, as he keeps a loose eye over the shop.  
  
Maybe it was your budding superhero career talking, but maybe he should've been keeping a better eye out for people looking to take albums off the shelves.  
  
"Hey, excuse me?" The man looked up, raising a slight eyebrow at you as you coughed into your fist. "Uh, there's this... uh, this Bruce Springsteen Album? I heard you had it back in stock?" You asked, showing him the name you'd written down on your phone. The man leaned his head forward a bit to get a better look before nodding, pointing out a ways down the aisles.  
  
"Aisle 17, look under 'S', can't miss it. Watch out, _The Boss_ album covers can look a bit samey sometimes so much sure you don't pick out the wrong one." Yeah, best not to do that when Uncle Ben gave you some of his money to buy it.  
  
"Thanks!" You quickly nod your head, the guy just kind of waving you off as you turned and immediately made tracks for the aisle in question. This was great! It was organized and pretty simple to fine the aisle and 'S' section in question. All you had to do was pick out the album, go home, give it and what change Uncle Ben had leftover back to him and you could get to today's patrol! Everything was going as smooth as silk...  
  
Up until you paused upon noticing that someone else was occupying the aisle in question.  
  
It honestly didn't take long to figure out just from a glance. While there were plenty of blonde girls around Midtown High the combination of that and a broad, black hairband made for a pretty big contrast in colors. The mid length haircut with blunt ends reached down to her shoulders and, off from the side, you noticed a thoughtful expression on the girl's face as she hummed some tune or another, looking over the various tracks. A jacket with... some kind of band name you hadn't heard of patched onto the shoulder, thick for the approaching winter, hung over some pretty average looking clothes, blue jeans fitting just ever so slightly over a pair of sneakers she had on.  
  
Yep, that was Gwen Stacy alright. Detective's daughter, member of the opposite sex and someone who you and Ned had basically, collectively, said all of maybe twenty words to in your full year and some odd months at Midtown High.  
  
...  
  
It kind of looked like she didn't notice you, a bit off in her own little world as she bobbed her head side to side ever so slightly, a tap to her foot as she looked over a few selection of albums. Pulling them off, flipping them around to the back for a moment before either stacking them in her hand or putting them back. Looks like she was here to shop for some music too.  
  
...  
  
Well... you think you saw some Springsteen albums. You could probably get your shopping done without even interacting with her.  
  
...  
  
Oh come on Parker. New powers, new muscles, hidden but hey new muscles, new Spider-Man, new you. You didn't have to actively avoid talking to people anymore! This was your chance to be more outgoing! Meet new people! Have new and interesting conversations about things you didn't know about before!  
  
All you had to do was walk up, introduce yourself and then bam! Instead acquaintance! Everyone else made it look easy so how hard could it be?  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Okay maybe it was harder than it looked.

"Hey Gwen."  
  
...  
  
That was it? That was all you came up with? Man, you were lame. Still, you at least hoped that it'd be enough to get this conversation going, maybe get to know someone different. Though, as you waited for Gwen to respond... well, quite simply, she didn't. At first you figured she just didn't hear you, after all you were still a bit away from her, and so you repeated your greeting. Then when she continued to not respond to you... well, you knew when to take a hint at the very least. "Well, I just thought I'd say, you know, hi but if you're busy-" As part of your exit you gave Gwen a very slight wave which, finally, did seem to catch the young lady's attention. You watch as her eyes glance over... before going a bit wide with surprise, jumping a little before she chuckled.  
  
"Oh wow, uh, sorry... you haven't been standing there long, have you?" You raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly she could've meant before... oh... ooooh. Before she pulled two earpods out from her ears, reaching into her pocket to silence her phone as she turned her full attention to you. That explained why she hadn't been paying attention to you at all! Woo! For a moment your teen anxiety was really starting to get out of hand.  
  
"Oh, uh, no! No, no, no! I've only been here for, like, a minute. I was just saying, you know... uh, hey Gwen?" Wow it sounded even lamer after it not being the first proper thing you said to her.  
  
"Ah, I see. Hey yourself Peter." You blink a little bit at that. You honestly weren't even sure how many people knew your name so to be so readily recognized was... kind of a shock.  
  
"You know my name?"  
  
"Pfft." You watch Gwen Stacy shake her head, putting a hand on her hip as she looked back at you. "Course I know your name; I mean, it's almost like we've been in the same class for a while. Not like I can go even a week without hearing Flash Thompson send a few shots towards his favorite punching bag." You blushed a little at that, Gwen shaking her hand. "No offense, you've been taking it like a champ. Guys like that'll only rib you harder if you react too much."  
  
"Uh... thanks? So I thought I'd say hi. You know, it's so rare that I see anyone besides Ned outside of school so... you know, seemed like a good thing to do." Gwen nodded, reaching out a hand to give you a shake which... well, you shook! It was good to be polite, right?  
  
"Well... thanks, then. That's pretty kind of you." Gwen said, somewhat awkwardly as she shifted around a bit. Yep, just two near strangers trying to break the ice and figure out how to advance the conversation without it being spaz worthy or awkward. The life of a teenager in this day and age. "So... what brings you here Peter? I wouldn't figure you of all people would buy albums. I'd think you'd go digital... no offense, I mean, it's-"  
  
"Well even if did mean offense it's not like you'd be wrong. I pretty much do just buy all my music digitally." You awkwardly admit... was there some kind of stigma to not buying albums that you didn't know about? Were you some kind of lout according to music types? "I'm actually here for my Uncle Ben... well, not for him but you get what I mean, I'm running this errand real quick for him. There's this new Springsteen album that's just now gotten back in stock and, well, he worked a long shift today so he asked if I could pick it up for him."  
  
"Oh!" You see Gwen immediately turn back to the rows upon rows of albums and, well, you're surprised when after just a few seconds she plucks a CD out from among them and hands the case over to you, your agile hands easily catching it in one smooth motion as you turn it over. Yep, that sure is Bruce Springsteen on the cover... and checking the title... yeah this is the one Uncle Ben wanted. "Kind of typical that he'd like The Boss huh? Seems like a lot of the older folks around here do."  
  
"Yep, uh, sure is typical alright..." You comment awkwardly, unsure about just how typical it was. You knew Uncle Ben was a fan but you never really talked to a lot of older people about their taste in music... was it weird or cool that Gwen did? You decided on cool. "Anyway, uh, thanks? That's actually probably a big help, I probably would've taken a while to actually find this out of all the... you know..." nearly a dozen CD cases with Bruce Springsteen's likeness on them. Oh God, that would've been a nightmare to look through to try and find this thing.  
  
"Hey it's no problem, figured I saw it while I was looking around so, why not. Really nice of you for you to do this for your uncle by the way, Peter." You shrug at that, it wasn't that nice. "I mean, considering the whole... you know, breathing thing you got going on." Oh right, it was a nice thing according to what people knew about you.  
  
"Well... winter's hardly the worst time for me to be out like this. The plants are dead and it's cold. Besides, my Uncle Ben does more than enough for me so I figured why not return the favor, right?" Gwen nodded politely at that, the conversation threatening to go into another awkward, uncomfortable lull before you sprung into action. "So uh... what about you?" You pointed at the stack of disk cases in her hand. "You just browsing or did you come here looking for some specific stuff." Gwen grinned a bit as she looked down, combing a bit of hair behind her ear.  
  
"I'm looking for my sound."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Oh... okay. Cool." That explained literally nothing. You watch as Gwen slaps her forehead for a moment, a slight 'duh' escaping her lips before she nodded.  
  
"Right, right, probably don't know what that means. I'm actually thinking of starting a band with a few friends."  
  
...  
  
"For real?"  
  
"For real." Gwen said with a solid nod, a grin on her lips as she pulled out various CDs. "Now I know what I want to go for generally speaking when it comes to genre. I have this feeling in my soul, a my friends do too, so it really isn't a matter of figuring out what kind of music we want to play but trying to find out our space in that genre. So, you know, what a lot of bands starting out do is to buy a whole bunch of music, listen to it and try to find what really speaks to them, you know? So that's kind of what I'm doing; not really looking for anything specific but just stuff I think might have a good sound to share." Gwen turned back to the stacks of CDs and picked out another one, waving it in the air. "I worked my way down to Twisted Sister." You craned your head around slightly; oh hey this was the S 'and' T section. Nifty.  
  
"Okay, I see what you're saying now! That's really cool Gwen! So, like, what are you thinking as it concerns your... sound?" You ask, shrugging your shoulders slightly as Gwen taps her chin.  
  
"Well I know I definitely want to go for Hard Rock, like, looking for something that can really just let me and my friends kind of speak our minds and say whatever we have in our hearts, you know, but when it comes to Hard Rock you really got to narrow it down because there's just so much stuff like in Punk Rock alone that it's crazy. Glam punk, deathrock, afro-punk, garage punk, harcore, anarcho and then there's the American versus the British scene and those choices but that's just even if we decide on a more punk direction. I mean I just picked up Twisted Sisters and they're a heavy metal band which also sounds pretty appealing but... I mean, screamo, death, doom, black, extreme or... pfft, you know, 'alternative'."  
  
"Heh... yeah, that 'alternative'." ... Oh God why did you even put air quotes around that you had no idea what on Earth she was talking about.  
  
"Right? So I mean I know what I want to do with this band, the kind of music my friends and I want to rock out to but there's just so much variety in the potential ways we could go down so you know, figured I'd sit down, pull up some stuff featuring about everything from The Clash on down and just try to figure out what really speaks to us, you know?"  
  
...  
  
No.  
  
No you didn't know.  
  
You had absolutely no idea what she meant.  
  
And now you were in this conversation as a completely unaware and utterly out of your league participant!  
  
Curse you desire for social interaction and broadening your horizons! It'd doomed you to this fate!  
  
Okay well... maybe just try to fake it till you make it?

You know... you could try faking it... but come on Parker, be realistic here. You knew so little about this kind of music, or most music in general, that she'd see right through you and your charade. Best to just come clean about just how little you got the idea in general. Still, just because you didn't understand it generally didn't mean you couldn't put together a good idea of what to say to her more specific point. That you could relate to in spades, these days.  
  
"Honestly I can't say I know much about this music stuff in general. Not exactly what you'd call a music buff, to say the very least." Gwen nodded her head, seeming to figure that at least. "I... actually... mostly just listen to anime and music soundtracks, or at least, that's the kind of music that gets my interest... sorry." You blush a little as Gwen brings up her hand to politely stifle a chuckle, the young woman clearing her throat as she grabbed onto her neck while maintaining a polite smile.  
  
"Well... you know, I might've figured but... well, you know what they say about assuming things." You laugh, more to try to banish the awkward embarrassment than anything else, as Gwen shrugs her shoulder. "Besides, that's cool, that's cool. Everyone has music that speaks to them. Just cause I might not necessarily be all that into soundtracks for movies and other stuff doesn't meant that it isn't music. Just... different kind, I guess?" You watch Gwen grab her arm for a moment as she tries her best to diplomatically balance out what she's saying to not come off as rude. The effort was much appreciated as you moved to get away from this particular little sink.  
  
"Still... I do get what you mean about finding inspiration from other sources." You say, readjusting your fake glasses as you point at the CDs in her hand. "I mean, it might be more for science-y stuff and fiddling around with some things while I'm tinkering but we all find inspiration from somewhere. For me it just happens to be inspirations for little do-dads and the like." Things like spiders, superheroes and even common technology that was just a bit too expensive for you to outright buy were your biggest inspiration these days but you didn't need to get into that.  
  
"Suppose it isn't a surprise. Science type stuff does seem to be a really... oh what's the word... 'building on the shoulders of giants' type of thing. I guess it's not that different from music in that regard... well I mean, it is but, you know, you get what I'm saying." You nod at that; while Gwen is futzing around with her words a bit she doesn't do it in the same way you do. For you it's awkward and embarrassing and just kind of you trying to struggle your way through a conversation. For Gwen there's an ease to her socialization that really only finds challenge in exactly communicating herself without coming across poorly.  
  
"I do, and yeah it is kind of different, probably why I never quite made the jump in my own time." Gwen nodded at that as you tapped your chin, thoughtfully. "Though I have to say, hanging out with friends, listening to bands like that and finding your muse so to speak... it sounds like a lot of fun." Gwen smiled as she nodded readily at that.  
  
"It really is. I'm looking forward to it! Know it's a long shot to be successful but hey, you never know. Besides, least it gives me something to focus on other than school, right?" You nod in agreement with that as Gwen just shrugs her shoulders. "Besides, it's never too late to find your muse there, Peter. Just sitting down and listening to some tunes with some friends." With that Gwen combed a hand through her hair. "Heck, I could give you some advice on what to listen to, make some recommendations if you'd like. Not sure how much time you have for that kind of thing but I figure I'd offer." You brighten up a bit at that! Was that... an offer to be... could it be...  
  
MUSIC ACQUAINTANCES?!  
  
"Oh! Uh, sure totally, I'd be up for that!" Gwen chuckles a bit at your enthusiasm, earning you a slight blush as the blonde nodded her head.  
  
"Well, who knew that Peter Parker could be that enthusiastic about something other than science?" The young woman joked as she readjusted her CDs. "Anyway, I'll be needing to get home soon so I need to finish up my shopping. See you around school then Peter?"  
  
"Yeah, see you around Gwen." Well how about that! Peter Parker, once the nerdiest nerd to have ever nerded out at Midtown High was now Peter Parker, semi-accomplished at talking to a person and being an acquaintance! As you quickly strode up to the front of the store, CD in hand that Gwen found for you so quickly, you couldn't help but feel like, even if this part of your life wasn't so drastically changed, that even the change that Spider-Man brought extended out into... well, your relationship with other people...  
  
Or well, your ability to actually reach out to other people, anyway.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

Still, all that being said, being Spider-Man definitely changed your life way more drastically in this regard.

Hop, skip, jump... long jump! Webline! Web Swing! Launch yourself off at the peak of the swing to get to the taller building ahead! Wall Crawl up it a bit with a run to make it the rest of the way! Woo! Good stuff man, good stuff! You grinned underneath your mask, feeling no breeze in your costume as you continued to sprint. Aunt May's sewing lessons had been just what you needed to get this costume patched up and, boy, was it easy to sew in a patch for a pair of bullet holes. There would always be some slight off-color to that part of the costume where you got winged because you'd kind of scavenge from other attic clothes to make the patch work but, hey, it looked good enough for you to be satisfied!  
  
You jumped from one building to the next, just hopping over the lines as you came upon a series of thin roads. It was a bit more of a cramped neighborhood in this spot in Brooklyn, moving onto Bertram L. Baker Way and Throop Avenue...  
  
Jesus Christ what was up with these road names here? Crazy.  
  
Anyway, as you started running across the rooftops you were keeping a vigilant eye open for any acts that would warrant a... well, vigilant vigilante to step in to stop! Ned hadn't been hearing much on the police lines for Brooklyn. A lot of it was chatter keeping an eye open for you, surprisingly. Heck, apparently a fair number of people who spotted you during your patrol today were calling into the police to drop tips. You hadn't seen any police officers or cars trailing you so you assumed that they weren't on your track but, still, kind of an interesting little tidbit.  
  
Well, interesting. Ned actually laughed at that; at this point, only you with your superhero high could call having the police called on your account interesting. Still, it was! You were the Spider-Man, a vigilante helping people, being a superhero while technically breaking the law! It was... cool, yeah, but in a super weird way... but still really cool!  
  
Besides, if you kept breaking up crooks then surely folks would come along to your way of-  
  
 ***Crack!*  
**  
"Alright boys, got it wedged in. Let's get to work!"  
  
-oh hey, good timing! You quickly jumped off one building, did a quick spin and then secured yourself to the side of it, looking down as your Wall Crawling abilities allowed you to effortlessly stick to it. Oh, classic. Three goons, a crowbar, two of them working it into an ATM to try and pry it open and one keeping an eye out! If they succeeded it might be a little nifty payday for them.  
  
If they succeeded.  
  
They had on some pretty big hats and high collar jackets. Aw, the more pedestrian crook disguise in the face of potential cameras; none of that Santa Claus stuff from last time. Probably figured if they broke into it quick enough they could run before the police were alerted and not have any camera be able to tag them with any noticeable traits...  
  
Well, time to prove these guys wrong.

With a slight breath as you steadied yourself and, more importantly, readied your quips for the fight ahead you shot out both wrists and pushed the triggers, launching two Weblines into the shoulders of the lookout. It's not even a question that, distracted as he is by looking out at ground level, that you end up tagging him with both Weblines.  
  
"Huh? What the Hell is thi-aaaaaaaaaah!" You quickly yank up, pulling the guy up a way toward you before sticking your end of the Webbing to the side of the building, effectively leaving him dangling there like some kind of puppet hanging by its stringers as he thrashed around a little but, panic having clearly overtaken him for a moment. His two friends immediately noticed his cry of shock and panic and turned to try to find him. When they didn't see him on the ground level... well, they followed where his voice was still calling out and shouting to see you hanging just above him while your Webbing kept him a good few yards off the ground.  
  
"Hey guys." You said, in a chipper and very casual tone of voice as you looked down at the two crooks. "Ah, robbing the ATM. More ethical than mugging, but less sexy than bank robbing. A fun middle ground for criminals of all ages to enjoy."  
  
"What the... what are... who the Hell are you?!" One of the crooks, the one with the crowbar, demanded as he pointed the blunt instrument at you. Ah, your next target willfully presenting himself to you.  
  
"Me? Well I'm your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. You, on the other hand, are making a mockery of the great Gordon Freeman himself!" Before the crook can even wrap his mind around what you're saying, as if it's pure gibberish to him, you quickly launch out another two Weblines, one wetly slapping against his crowbar and the other connecting itself to the top of his shoe. Before he can even piece together what you've done he's dragged right off of his foot, his back momentarily slamming against the ground as you pull him up into the air and the crowbar out of his hand. You slap the two lines of Webbing into slightly different spots, leaving the fella hanging by his foot as he dangled a couple yards off the ground, crying out as you waved the crowbar toward him.  
  
"Crowbars are meant for good, not for evil!" You eventually leave the crowbar to dangle on its own as you turn your gaze, goggle covered sure but still your gaze, over to the last crook who just watched as one of his friends was unceremoniously left hanging upside down, by a single line of Webbing to the side of a building.  
  
...  
  
"Fuck this shit, I'm out."  
  
You watch as the crook immediately hoofed it, breaking out into a sprint down the road as he tried to get away. Tried being the keyword there of course. Honestly it was probably the smartest move he could've made this evening... too bad those same smarts weren't there to keep him from committing this crime in the first place.  
  
With a small breath you quickly jumped off the side of the building and fired out a line of Webbing, connecting it to a nearby building as you let your initial fall carry you into a rather speedy arc of momentum in your swing. As you bottom out in the middle of it you take your free hand and take aim, closing one eye as you took careful aim at the fellow's back. You fire, the Webline singing through the air before, with a hoot and holler of triumph, you watch it impact the guy's back with a solid connection. Seconds later you have to imagine this crook soon learns what flight feels like as his feet, initially, scratch against the ground before he loses all purchase on it as your swing carries the two of you up as part of the end of it. You leap up, disconnecting from the line as your feet gracefully stick onto the side of another building, your hand tightly gripping and keeping a hold of the fellow underneath you.  
  
So, honest question here... did you decide to rob the ATM here because you hate this place or because you really like it? I'm genuinely curious." The guy kicked around a bit, struggling against the Webline on his back as you shook your head. "Honestly dude I really wouldn't, right now this is the only thing keeping you from doing a belly flop onto the street down there. It wouldn't be too bad from this high up but, trust me, it'd hurt and... well, you wouldn't get away anyway." You watch the guy slows as he comes to realize just how high up he actually is, causing him to shiver a bit as you quickly connect the Webline. "Good criminal. Now then... time to make sure you boys are nice and snug when the police arrive."  
  
You quickly spend the next few minutes Webbing up the three goons, making sure they're nice and stuck to the walls with various Weblines to keep them from getting away and, more importantly, to keep them from falling before the police can show up to safely get them down. You quickly replace your cartridges, a good day's hard work done, as you heave a sigh of relief.  
  
"Alright then, good job gents... well, bad job actually, you guys kind of got bodied here." The three goons just snarled at you, though the effect was made kind of comical by the fact that they could barely budge from all the Webbing you sprayed down. "Feel free to leave a review on my performance online. Constructive criticism only please, and no trolling. If you troll then that means you're a prep and a poser."  
  
"... What the fuck does that even mean!?" One of the crooks as before you jump up and fire off a Webline, giving a holler of excitement as you swung off into the distance, leaving the trio behind and causing just enough ruckus that, if anyone hadn't noticed what you were up to before, they sure as Hell did now.  
  
Ah... another day, another weekend, another crime foiled by the one and only Spider-Man. Even as you felt a little sore from the Web Swinging you'd been doing the past several hours as part of this patrol, you couldn't help but let the feeling of genuine accomplishment soothe you as you prepared to finish out your patrol and get on home.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"When applying stitching to a wound measuring more than half an inch but less than an inch you should apply pressure... and... hmmm, what was this word here dad... man your handwriting was atrocious sometimes."  
  
Ah, now this? This was something you were way more comfortable with! Your dad's notes on matter scientific that you could sink your teeth into without worrying about coming off like a total spaz or embarrassing yourself! No social interactions here to make Peter Parker look ridiculous! Just your dad's notes on first aid techniques that he picked up as part of a required class in his biology and medical degrees. It was actually really good timing too; after your quick scare with the bullet wound you'd been afraid that it wouldn't heal over completely on its own. Surprisingly though your Healing Factor came in clutch, pretty much patching up the graze within a day and leaving only the barest hint that you'd taken a hit there at all, hopefully something that would fade completely with enough time.  
  
Still, you had to imagine that there would come times when you'd be so badly damaged that you'd need to give your Healing Factor a helping hand. After all if you didn't want to be laid up for who knew how long from a serious injury that your Healing Factor was slowly but surely working away at then you'd need to figure out how to help it along. Stitches, makeshift braces and the basics of treating surface level injuries and breaks... yeah, this sounded like the kind of stuff a burgeoning superhero with no super techno armor who couldn't go to a hospital without being arrested or found out as a freak of science would need to know. Plus, like you said, it was way more in your wheelhouse than social interaction with strangers...  
  
...  
  
You weren't going to lie though, it was a little dry and just a bit boring after a while.


	21. Jeopardy

Okay.  
  
Time to actually make this acquaintance thing happen Peter.  
  
You took a deep breath as you walked across the campus of Midtown High, a slightly nervous twitch to your step as you, during a rare bit of a free time afforded to students around the lunch hour, approach the target of your current social aspirations. One Gwen Stacy who you've just so recently established a friendly little repertoire with over the weekend. Despite the fact that you probably socialized with only a handful of people all across your entire life. Honestly, putting the Spider-Man stuff to the side it was one of those accomplishments you felt really proud of. Someone actually wanted to keep talking to you after you engaged them socially! Like, that was really cool!  
  
Now it was on you to not mess that up and to keep this train going! Today you and Gwen Stacy were music acquaintances! Tomorrow... music chums? Music hangers? Music... agh, you'd figure out the ranking titles later. For now you only knew that working your way up to music friend would be a long and arduous road but that it would all start here! With you talking to Gwen at school where everybody including Flash Thompson could see you...  
  
...  
  
Admittedly that thought does momentarily make you panic and consider running for the hills, not wanting to hear guff from Flash about you walking up to a girl to 'hit on her', which you'd gotten more than once from him... but you were in too deep now and, besides, you and Gwen had gotten along just fine outside of school...  
  
But what if it was just outside of school? What if, now that school was here, Gwen was going to act like she didn't even know you!? Sure she was by herself without any of her other friends around but other people were still around to see right?! What if this turned out like those high school movies or that one episode of Scrubs with Doctor Cox and the Janitor where you make a friend outside of your workplace, or school place in this case, and then when you're back in that environment they act like they don't even know you?! Good God, you weren't sure you could-  
  
"Oh, hey Peter, what's up?"  
  
You blinked as Gwen so suddenly addressed you, the young woman looking up from her phone as she seemed to notice the sounds of your footsteps approaching. She must've heard you without both of those earpods in. For a moment you're confused as you look around... no one's bothered to take notice of the fact that you're talking to Gwen Stacy right now. Not even Flash.  
  
...  
  
Oh thank God, worst case scenario avoided. Now all you had to do was actually say hello and get this ball rolling!  
  
Hey Gwen! Sorry, kind of spaced out there for a second. I just thought after the weekend that we could kick this whole thing off and we could hang out for a bit. Maybe talk a little music or... well, about whatever you're looking up on your phone there?  
  
Wait.  
  
You were thinking the words but you couldn't hear them.  
  
Oh God! You still weren't talking!  
  
Words Parker, use your words!  
  
"Hey Gwen! Sorry, kind of spaced out there for a few seconds. I just thought after the weekend that we could kick this whole thing off and we could hang out for a bit." You shortened what you were originally gonna say down a lot, coughing into your fist a bit as you nervously laugh. Gwen just gives a polite nod as she pops out her other earpod to turn her full attention your way.  
  
"Sure thing Peter, just give me a moment. I was looking up some stuff for the band stuff we were talking about back at the store." You gave a quick 'oh' as you nod, looking over at her phone for a moment. Gwen just offered an amused grin as she turned the screen so you both could look at it. "You see, we all have instruments and stuff, my drum kit is pretty old these days but the girls are still holding up well. I figured if we wanted to get a start on stuff we could just record some stuff at one of my friend's house and then upload it to YouTube, see if that catches any views... you know, when we actually start performing stuff... maybe a few covers to start with."  
  
"Oh, covers are neat. There's-" Don't bring up Anime OP Covers done in English, "-a lot of good ones, so I've heard." You coughed into your fist again as Gwen chuckled.  
  
"Yeah so I'm just looking into some microphones and maybe some editing programs and stuff... don't know a lot about it myself but, you know, I figure if I do enough searches." She scrolls through the various tabs, before coming up to a online store that had several microphones and other audio recording equipment on display.  
  
...  
  
Wow, just looking at the various prices was making your wallet cry. Gwen seems to take notice of your expression, owl-eyes and surprised as she took a moment to consider.  
  
"Oh! Uh, I mean, this isn't like the stuff I'm gonna be buying. It's a little rich for my blood too, I mean my dad's just a cop... well, 'detective with the NYPD' but, you know." Gwen coughed into her fist herself, finally, as she looked back at you. "Anyway, I just wanted to see what people were recommending so that I could try to find out what cheaper stuff I might be able to use instead. Still though, for editing... I don't know much but it kind of sounds like Adobe or bust at this point."  
  
Sounded pretty rough.

"Well hey, Adobe's not your only option." You see Gwen tilt her head as you shrug your shoulders. "I mean, I'm not gonna lie it's probably the best option you have available, it'll have all the bells and whistles and it'll probably be pretty user friendly but, well, if you're just getting started and you're looking for something on the cheap... well, you don't get much cheaper than free and Audacity is free. It's an open source program, it's a multi-track editor and recording program that you can just download and get to using it. I can't guarantee it'll do as much for you as the paid programs, but..."  
  
"But if we're just getting started then that might not be a bad place to start. Thanks Peter, that's actually really helpful." You grin at that as Gwen actually takes out a notebook from her bag and a pen and writes down the name of the program.  
  
"I can talk to my friend, Ned, about more programs like that. He's not exactly a music guy himself but he's pretty knowledgeable about computer stuff and software like this so he might know a few obscure programs that might be able to help you out." You scratch your cheek. "Also... well when you get this stuff... I might be able to help you a bit if you ever need repairs or something touched up." You see Gwen blinks a bit at that, the blonde leaning forward slightly.  
  
"You know how to repair stuff like this?" Oof... well, time for a bit of the truth.  
  
"Stuff like this? Well... not exactly. I know how to repair and operate electronics, yeah. Heck I'm even pretty good with making slight design choices myself given the right resources... but... well... I'm more good with... science stuff. Chemistry sets, electronics for scientific equipment... computers..." God that old brick of a laptop. How you were still keeping it running boggled the mind. "So... I wouldn't be familiar with stuff like audio equipment... but I'm still at least familiar with repairing electronics so I'd be better than nobody or a complete novice." You see Gwen fiddle with her hair for a moment as she thinks it over.  
  
"... I mean, as tempted as I am by the offer, having an acquaintance fix my stuff would probably be less expensive than taking it to someone more familiar with it... I dunno. It's a couple things really. First it feels kind of... you know-" Gwen shrugs, "-weird for me to think about asking those kinds of favors considering we just started talking. Like I appreciate that you offered but I wouldn't feel comfortable taking you up on that offer."  
  
"I get that." Heck the only reason you'd probably told Ned and accepted his offer of help with all the Spider-Man stuff was because of how close you two were. "The other thing?"  
  
"... Well I'd probably just feel more secure taking it to someone who definitely has the tools and the know how." Gwen lets out a nervous laugh at that, the blonde shaking her head. "Sorry." You let out a lighthearted laugh as you waved it off, smiling reassuringly.  
  
"Hey don't worry about it. Heck, it's why I qualified it with all that stuff about what I know... plus who knows if I even have the tools to replace or repair audio equipment." You'd honestly never bothered to check because it never came up... but you can't imagine that Uncle Ben really has a need to buy tools like that and, by now, what tools you were directly borrowing from Uncle Ben were ones you got here and there specifically for your experiments.  
  
"Still, I really do appreciate the offer!" Gwen reassured with a broad smile as you nodded.  
  
"Hey, figured I should at least offer to help. It's what my Uncle would want me to do." You step to the side for a moment as you keep on thinking. "Oh! You might even want to wait a while before you start buying. Black Friday/Cyber Monday is coming up pretty soon, right? Maybe there'll be a really good deal on something." You watch as Gwen Stacy, a girl you've known from afar as being usually pretty cool and collected, audibly slapped her forehead at that.  
  
"Oh man, I almost completely forgot!" You laugh a bit at that, Gwen shaking her head as she looked off to the side, a slightly sheepish blush on her cheeks from her own brain fart. "I swear I barely even noticed that it was that time of the year. Dad... well, we don't tend to make a lot of plans around Thanksgiving so it kind of slips under the radar." You raise an eyebrow at that, genuinely surprised.  
  
"Really? I mean I know he's a detective but is he kept that busy around Thanksgiving?" Gwen gave a wry smile.  
  
"He usually isn't off stomping the grid if that's what you mean, but a lot of officers are put on walks around stores to help keep the peace. You know how it can be with Black Friday approaching; people tend to lose their minds a bit." Yeah, you'd seen the videos. "So yeah, my dad's usually rounded up to help run it in certain sections of Manhattan. It's nothing too bad, I usually hang out with some family friends for their Thanksgiving. Heck, for a few years growing up I..." You see Gwen frown a bit as she seems to glance off for a bit.  
  
"You...?" You lead off as Gwen shakes her head.  
  
"Nevermind, just... nostalgic, I guess." Weird, you didn't usually associate a frown with nostalgia. "Anyway, we just don't usually have plans for this time of year so it slips my mind was... you know, the whole point I was trying to make before I rambled on." You chuckle a bit at Gwen's nonchalant way of speaking, knocking her knuckles into the side of her head as she grinned up at you. "What about you? Your family have any big Thanksgiving plans usually?"  
  
Hahahahaha... oh boy, did she not even know the world of food coma she opened herself up to.  
  
Aunt May was a monster during Thanksgiving.

Oh man, Thanksgiving. Aside from Christmas it was probably the biggest holiday of the year in your house. Sure Ben and May liked to go to Church for Easter and New Years was always a celebration worth having to bring on the New Year and your birthday was a nice little family event but nothing could take the second place spot from Thanksgiving as far as you could tell. Hell, the fact that it was only a little over a week away was leaving you salivating at the thought.  
  
"You wouldn't believe how huge Thanksgivings are Gwen! It's insane; Aunt May and Uncle Ben are the type to invite a lot of family friends over as part of the celebration and, crazy enough, most of them end up showing up! Next door neighbors and even folks from like blocks down the street at least pop in to say hi, have some food and even hang around for a bit before going to their own Thanksgivings out of town or in their own homes. You'd think Aunt May couldn't possibly prepare enough food for everyone but, dear God, it's like the woman tries every single year to kill all of us. There's no other way I can explain her making so much food!  
  
"Uncle Ben and a lot of his friends usually end up watching the game with some of their kids on the television before they go back home for the evening and... you know, I try to be a good sport and keep up but... well, I don't really do sports myself." Though, according to Jeopardy, you certainly picked up enough from these yearly rituals and from Ben's love of the various sports to be knowledgeable. "It's pretty nice to know that so many people care so much and that they enjoy spending time with my family. Then of course evening rolls around and Uncle Ben, Aunt May and I just have a nice Thanksgiving dinner to ourselves and... it's just really, really nice.  
  
"For better or for worse, it's hard to imagine a quiet Thanksgiving at my house." You see Gwen nods slowly, taking in your enthusiasm as her lips form a thin line on her face. You're befuddled by that for a moment... well, until your brain kicks into gear and you realize how much you must've sounded like you were bragging. "Oh, God, sorry Gwen, I-"  
  
"No, no. Don't. That sounds really nice Peter. I'm glad you were willing to share. It does sound like a pretty great Thanksgiving. Even if it does sound a little noisy." Gwen's lips finally formed into a slight grin as she stood up, shrugging her shoulders. "Besides, it's not like dad and I don't have a little dinner ourselves when he gets home. So don't worry about it, it's cool that you have such a big one." You still felt a little sheepish about so blatantly bragging about your own Thanksgiving after what she'd just talked about but you nodded and smiled regardless. "Anyway, think it's about time for us to head back to class so I'm going to get an early start on going to my locker. You take care Peter."  
  
"Yeah, you too Gwen!" You both give a short wave as the two of you part, leaving you to awkwardly stand around for a moment as your mind ran through the conversation...  
  
...  
  
Hey, even if there was a slight bump, first conversation as music acquaintances went down smoothly! Way to go Peter Parker!

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"Okay just a little more fiddling over here... a little bit there... install this, punch in that... snack break." You watch as Ned grabs a bite of food from a plate his mom had provided the two of you to snack on as you sit on a chair in his room, watching from behind your best friend as Ned quickly went to work on... whatever it was he was doing.  
  
...  
  
"So are you actually gonna fill me in on what's up or not, Ned?" You ask again, leaning forward on your elbows as Ned just looked back over at you, a grin on his face.  
  
"Oooh! Patience grasshopper! A rolling stone gathers no moss and I must be given the proper time and preparation to see this task to completion. Once I am done, then you will see." Ned put on a slight accent, ironically enough an exaggerated version of his dad's, when spoke to you, earning a slight grin from you as you quirk an eyebrow.  
  
"Hey is it racist when you put on the Hollywood Asian accent?" Ned stopped his work again as he looked back at you, a genuinely thoughtful expression on his face.  
  
"... You know... I don't know. Never really gave it much thought before. I'm going to go with no because, you know, duh-" Ned pointed to himself by means of explanation as you just nodded at your Korean American friend, "-but when I go to our next meeting I'll be sure to ask and then tell you when I get back."  
  
...  
  
"You guys have a meeting?" You ask, whispering in a conspiratorial and thoroughly awed way... before Ned breaks down into a fit of giggles, causing you to blush as you just glance off to the side. Oh the complex, and not so complex, wondering, pondering thoughts of two fifteen year old boys. You really didn't know why you were even here right now, though you weren't exactly displeased. Hanging out with Ned sounded like a good way of spending more time outside of school and, hey, it'd been a while since you two really chummed it up in person... for real. Like officially, if either of your folks asked, you guys had been going out to hang out at different spots in the city, disguising your actual activity of working as Spider-Man with your guy in the chair.  
  
So when Ned called you over saying he had something awesome to show off you jumped at the chance to be there in person with your best friend. Who knew what Ned could have under his sleeve? A new torrent site for you guys to use to... borrow anime. Maybe some news about some game or system or show coming out? A new comic or... hey, maybe even a new Lego set! The possibilities were endless! What you weren't expecting was to be kept sitting quiet behind Ned as he worked on something on his desk, his computer monitors up to... it was hard to tell but they kind of looked like tutorials? It'd been like this for the past fifteen minutes and, while you had a great deal of patience, even-  
  
"Ah-hah! Got it!"  
  
-oh hey talk about timing. Ned grinned as he spun around in his eponymous chair, grinning like a loon as he turned back to face you.  
  
"Alright there Peter Parker. Don't bother standing up because I'm going to just knock you right back down again once I show you what I've just done." You grinned a bit at your friend's enthusiasm as you rubbed your hands together, the excitement practically infectious as Ned immediately made a flashy show, hands zooming around before...  
  
Presenting you with the GPS screen on his phone, its location locked down onto the house.  
  
...  
  
"Ned I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see in your GPS screen here but if I'm supposed to be thrilled that it knows where we are... well, Ned, come on I do know what GPS is." Ned just rolled his eyes before shaking the screen a bit.  
  
"Nah man, you're not looking close enough! Isn't it a little bit weird where it says the phone is?" You rolled your eyes slightly. You knew that these addresses could be imprecise at times but still it... it was locked on...  
  
It... wasn't locked on to Ned's house. In fact, according to the phone it was... a few houses down a ways. More than a few actually it was like a couple or a few blocks off, if your eyes weren't lying.  
  
...  
  
"Ned what did you do?" You asked, sounding bewildered as Ned just smiled, a short chuckle escaping his lips as he dramatically revealed [the tutorials on screen](https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/how-change-your-gps-location-on-android-3646250/).  
  
"Dude! Back when Pokemon Go was the big thing people were screwing with the GPS on their phones to lock them down in a different location so that they could catch the Pokemon there! I just borrowed a bit from those tutorials and, bada bing bada boom!" You looked back down at the phone... Pokemon Go. People screwed with the GPS on their phone, something... potentially, maybe illegal you weren't sure... and looking back at the tutorials on Ned's screen. Sure enough, people were doing this potentially illegal thing... to catch... Pokemon not in their region...

"This is so dumb Ned. Like, it's cool, but it's for the dumbest reason I think I've ever heard.” This was your honest to God opinion too. Like as cool as all of this was it was also so completely and totally dumb too! Like, people potentially breaking terms of service, maybe even breaking the law, just to catch rare Pokemon that they otherwise couldn't get on a phone app? That was dedication to being a nerd that you couldn't even begin to possibly fathom even if you tried.  
  
"I know right? Still though, this gave me an idea!" You see Ned wave his hand around towards his TV. "You know how in Star Trek how when members of the crew want to go somewhere without being found out they fake their communicator signal so that it looks like they're somewhere so that no one will know what they're getting up to?"  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Please don't tell anyone how much of a nerd I just sounded like. Like, even I have limits with how much of a nerd I want people to know I am." You nod your head, slowly and comfortingly, as you reach a hand forward and clasp it to Ned's shoulder.  
  
"Ned... I promise that I'll be the only person who knows just how much of a nerd you are. I'd hope you'd do the same for me." The two of you dramatically nod, the depths of your nerdom, your true nerdom, agreed to be kept a secret for all time. After all, nerds had to stick together, right? After that, though, you quickly nodded as you leaned back in your chair. "Sure, I get that. I think I see what you're saying too... you think you can use this app to keep people from tracking down where we are when I'm doing Spider-Man stuff?"  
  
"Well if it can trick satellites into thinking people in New York are in Sydney Australia for the purposes of catching region specific Pokemon then I'm sure we can maybe adjust it by a mile, maybe slightly more maybe slightly less, here and there so that it looks like we're where we say we are in New York while you're doing your superhero business!" Ned grinned as he twirled his phone around. "Like I said, I just did it on my phone and it totally works, as you saw. I can pretty much say that I'm just about anywhere in New York I want to be at this point." Ned tapped his forehead. "So long as we only make small adjustments too it should keep people from being too suspicious about things. Like a lot of people who used this for Pokemon go were so easily caught because they were zipping, like, hundreds of miles, if not thousands, in the span of like a few clicks of an app.  
  
"Satellites only send signals to GPS trackers every minute so if we carefully worked with the system to put us at some place where we told our folks we'd be then wham bam, thank you ma'am, if people ever thought to look us up or track our phones while we're making a call or you're swinging around they wouldn't be able to properly track us as being... you know, Spider-Man and his Guy in The Chair." You nod at that, getting more and more hyped about this idea! Yeah, it sounded really cool... wait... if it sounded so cool...  
  
"Then why aren't you asking for my phone so we can do this right now? Like, what's the wait?" You clap your hands together, feeling the excitement shudder through you... as Ned hemmed and hawed a bit.  
  
"Well I mean, first things first... while the app itself isn't strictly illegal, after all you can get it on official stores... I mean, if people found out we were using it in order to fake our locations for vigilante stuff then we'd probably get hit pretty hard." Alright, but that was already baked into the fact that you were both committing vigilantism right? So what was- "Besides... we don't exactly have a great excuse for having these apps on our phones. If people see the app then questions are probably gonna be rightly raised as to why we have it on our phones."  
  
...  
  
Okay yeah that was a better point.  
  
"I have a solution to that, a partial one at least... but... well..."  
  
"Out with it man!" You say, feeling the pressure, as Ned just looks back up at you.  
  
"... We'd have to reinstall Pokemon Go on our phones and make it seem like that's what we're using the app for."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Ned after we read about Chicago Go Fest we promised we'd never go through with it ever again. We got burned too badly, Ned... _we got burned too badly."_  
  
...  
  
You both couldn't help but crack up a bit at the melodrama you both were throwing around, Ned finally getting his giggles under control as he shook his head.  
  
"For real though, if people see this app on our phones then... well, they'll only think we're getting up to some kind of trouble with it. We can do what we can to hide it on a side screen or just keep it to various tabs for various apps and try to jumble it up in the mess but, well, you generally don't have this app on your phone for no reason. So I just wanted to check in with you and see what you thought and whether you think it's a good idea." Ned shrugs his shoulders, a friendly smile on his face. "I might be the Guy in The Chair but you're the actual superhero here, so it seemed like best policy to check in with you."  
  
Which, hey, you were certainly grateful for.

"There has to be a way to disguise the app, right? Change the icon, relabel it to something else? I doubt we're the first people with that kind of need." You remark as you rub your chin in thought. You see Ned visibly sigh in relief at that, nodding his head as he shook his phone around.  
  
"There is, thankfully, and it's pretty simple. Now don't get me wrong, if someone ever pressed the app they'd immediately see what it really was; I'm afraid there's no way to disguise an app so thoroughly that you can stop people from seeing what it really is once they click on it. Still though, changing the name, the file picture and the like? Yeah, that's easy enough to do." Ned shrugged his shoulders as he looked up at you. "Like I said, I just wanted to be sure you were okay with the idea before going on ahead with it. Want to be sure we're on the same page before I start, you know, just messing with our phones and stuff for this whole superhero thing."  
  
You can't help but smile a bit, nodding your head as you clap Ned on the shoulder. "I appreciate it man, but hey, I made you my Guy in the Chair for a reason right? If I didn't trust you to handle stuff like this then I probably wouldn't have told you in the first place, right?" You see Ned smiles, but the chubbier fella just shrugged his shoulders again as he extended out his hand for your phone which, after taking a moment to pull it out, you handed over.  
  
"I know, but I figure it just pays to ask. As much as people go on about how it's easier to say sorry than to ask permission, if we're doing stuff that's low key illegal then it's probably best to ask permission first, right?" You shrugged, seeing the wisdom in that at least.  
  
"How long do you think it'd take you to do all this?"  
  
"Well, I have to download the app on your phone and then fiddle around with the files to give it a different look and name. I figure I'd better download Pokemon Go onto our phones again just to be sure we have a backup excuse if someone did dig around and found the real app." You nodded, scratching your cheek a bit.  
  
"How likely do you think that is?"  
  
"Well who knows? So long as it looks convincing and we don't name it something super obvious like 'homework app' then so long as we're not caught doing anything wrong I doubt people would look into it. Plus if people do try to look into it through its signal while you're Spider-Man or to see where you are in relation to Spider-Man, they'll see that you're a ways away if we do this right so... yeah. Should be good. Just make sure that they don't figure to check on Spider-Man himself, else that might be when things get a bit awkward."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind." You say casually as you sit back down, Ned getting to work on the phone. "... For real though Ned, you've been doing really good work. I appreciate it man." You see Ned grin widely from behind, turning to look at you.  
  
"No problem man. You're doing the superhero stuff, might as well do my part while you're fighting crime right... though I will take your praise nonetheless. For I am a generous and humble soul who, though he doesn't need it, will let you feel better by accepting your gratitude." You roll your eyes at that, and the melodramatic tone he takes while saying so, before going back to just letting Ned do his work.  
  
It isn't long before he finishes... though he does so right as you need to leave to get back home. With everything said and done the two of you quickly exchange phones, cover stories to keep yourselves consistent on the app and then part for the night, more prepared than before.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

These days it's actually a bit of a rare thing for you to be sitting around the living room and just kind of vegging out. This, here you were after finishing tomorrow's homework sprawled out on the couch looking more like a bum on a log than a human being as you flipped through the channels looking for something to watch. Peter Parker; ace science student, potential new friend maker and lest you forget superhero in the guise of Spider-Man... was just taking a lazy afternoon to watch the boob tube. In all fairness you were doing this to just relax a bit. After everything you'd been through the past... well, over a month now, really, you hadn't taken a lot of time to just stop, relax and enjoy yourself not doing anything at all. Sure you might've been called to it from time to time when Uncle Ben suggested it but... well, you were talking or working with him before that.  
  
Really this path month you'd been zipping to and fro from training to working on inventions to learning to sew to making a costume to talking with your family and Ned and... well, you'd really gotten yourself pretty dang busy, if you did say so. You'd been putting yourself through your paces, with school piling up on top of everything else. It was important for you to remember to just veg out every now and then before you went nuts and... you don't know, what would you do if you went nuts...  
  
Try to make Spider Shark Repellent?  
  
Blurgh. You turned your brain off, you can't blame yourself for not thinking of a better joke.  
  
As you sat around you heard the door swing open to the front of the house. You glanced over at the clock and-  
  
"Ooof... long day, loooong day."  
  
-sure enough, it was just a few minutes shy of when Uncle Ben said he'd be back from work today. He'd apparently lined up a lot of work at the mechanic shop today, trying to get as many orders in before Thanksgiving as possible. People would be taking their cars upstate in order to see family after all so they'd need to have any issues dealt with or have their cars checked up before a long trip. It was a good time for Uncle Ben... though it did usually mean longer shifts for him. Longer shifts meant that he was working even longer than usual, which meant that you got to see a rare sight. Uncle Ben, a man you'd always seen with a chipper grin and a jump in his step, tiredly rolling out his shoulders, stiff after sitting under who knew how many cars all day, as he strode into the living room. His eyes were closed as he gave a great yawn but it was almost as if he knew, by virtue of instinct alone, where his recliner was.  
  
The older man just stretched out in front of the recliner, several bones in his back popping as he gave a great yawn before gracelessly collapsing back into the recliner, smacking his lips a couple times before shimmying around to find a comfortable spot. He would eventually, God knew that Uncle Ben loved that chair for that very reason, and when he did-  
  
"Yeah... that's the spot." Uncle Ben tiredly muttered, giving another yawn as he just practically sank into the cushions. Before you were always kind of amused by Uncle Ben's antics, never really having understood being bone tired before. You couldn't say you were incredibly active and, to be frank, what activity you did take part in was hardly physically taxing. These days though? Well, between your patrols, your exercises and your training you were pretty sure you knew... a version of bone tired. Hey you were young, super strong and super healthy compared to Uncle Ben who was getting into his Golden Years. You doubted you being bone tired was quite the same as him being bone tired.  
  
"Hmm..." You glance over to see Aunt May poking her head out from around the corner, a slightly thoughtful expression on her face as she seemed to consider something. Your aunt glanced over at you and, giving you a quick shushing motion, grinned as she slipped back out and, from what you could gather, snuck her way to the kitchen. Uncle Ben, meanwhile, after having settled in seemed to start pawing into the side pockets of his recliner, a slight frown forming on his face, eyes still closed, as he continued to paw around. What could he...  
  
Oh, duh! The remote control! You took it out of the recliner to watch television!  
  
"Uh, I have the remote over here Uncle Ben." You watch as your Uncle jolts, just ever so slightly, as he cranes his head back your way. After a moment of surprise the older man's shock is replaced with that customary warm smile as he leaned back into his recliner.  
  
"Hey there sport. Sorry about that, didn't even notice you over there. Old eyes must not've seen ya with you practically blending in with the couch there." You hear the old man say, his voice softer than usual as he seemed well and truly exhausted. Still, you had to hand it to him, even tired he knew how to make a good joke. "So what are we watchin' Pete? Anything good on?" Oh, uh... well, you look back at the tv, considering the options... and then back down at the remote.

You opened your mouth to speak... but then thought better of it. You thoughtfully handled the remote in your hand, giving it a jostle as you thought things over. On the one hand you were laying around after school and a long month of doing Spider-Man stuff. Sure you weren't that tired right now and you were more doing it for the sake of your own peace of mind... but still, it was a way for you to kick back and relax as well...  
  
On the other hand, Uncle Ben.  
  
"Actually, I haven't had much luck Uncle Ben. Maybe you'd know what'd be good this hour?"  
  
Uncle Ben who worked pretty much every weekday, sometimes for long hours, along with Aunt May to make sure this house was taken care of and that you had everything you needed. Uncle Ben who still sacrificed time to drive you. Uncle Ben who was getting into his 60s and still acted and behaved like the man with the health and energy of a guy half of his age. If that didn't earn him the tv remote, you weren't sure what did. So you quickly, though a little clumsily as you tried to fake not being that good, tossed the remote onto Uncle Ben's recliner, having it land on his arm rest as the man looked down at it. He seemed a little surprised at first, almost as if he was going to protest... but then you see that slight smile on his face as he calmly shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Well, I don't know about good, especially for a kid your age, but I know what I like to tune into around this time..." You watch as Uncle Ben quickly punches in some channel numbers, checking his watch to make sure of the time. "Yep, right on time too." You lean forward, a bit curious as to what was going to come on. Slowly but surely some graphics started to form on the screen as a little theme song started to kick up. It did sound familiar, like something you heard distantly while working in the basement...  
  
"[This... is... Jeopardy!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNkvxqGmscY)"  
  
Oh, duh, of course. You sit up as the program starts to air and... wow, Alex Trebek was still alive? You were, like, ninety percent sure that this guy would've been dead by now.  
  
"Jeopardy huh?" You asked, leaning in again as Uncle Ben nodded his head, tiredly yawning as he grinned over at you.  
  
"Yeah. Nice little way to unwind at the end of the day. Plus it's nice to see how many of these questions I actually end up getting. Nice little test and a way to keep the old noggin from rotting away on me." You smile a bit at that, grinning back at your Uncle as you stood up.  
  
"Well I know my noggin's certainly on tight and ready to go. I'd probably be able to answer a whole bunch of these questions." You declare while Alex, on the television, is introducing the various contestants, including the previous show's winner.  
  
"Oh is that right? Want to make a little contest of it there sport?" Oof, your boast called. You look over the topics and... well, granted, it'd be hard to say that you could get a lot of these questions right but... well, shot, why not. It'd be a good way of spending some time with Uncle Ben.  
  
Plus you were feeling just a bit competitive; after all, your brains were the biggest thing you sold yourself on before your superpowers.  
  
"I dunno Uncle Ben, wouldn't want to stress you out while you're so tired." The older man just laughed as he sat up in his chair, looking just a bit more energized.  
  
"Oh well now I have to show you who knows what there Peter. Let's do this." With that the two of you turned to the television and immediately got ready for the various questions and topics that were going to be thrown your way.  
  
To call it a close fought first round of the game show was an understatement. While you opened up a neat little lead against Uncle Ben early on in the rounds, off of some questions you managed to snag off of your years spent watching television and absorbing various bits of knowledge through osmosis, your Uncle Ben was showing he was no slouch in what he knew either. Still, you managed to keep up with him even in topics where it seemed like Ben would've had the lead. Thanks to listening in to Ben's various discussions on football and sports, and by watching some whenever you all were sitting together having dinner, you managed to snag a few answers from the college football topic that was part of the show.  
  
Admittedly you were privately ashamed of how much you knew about old timey sodas and soda jerks being from movies aping the 50s look or from Happy Days but, hey, you were racking up the dough here and there. Still, if there were areas where both you and Ben flailed in it was geography and the shoes... for the most part.  
  
Heck, there was one particularly embarrassing moment for the both of you when, on the easiest shoes question:  
  
 _"A diminutive of the Italian word for 'dagger' gives us the name of these heels."  
_  
...  
  
You and Uncle Ben just glanced at each other; if this was the easy question then there was no way you two were getting any of the others. Heck, what would the answer even-  
  
"Stilettos!"  
  
 _"What are stilettos?"  
_  
You and Uncle Ben drop your jaws as the answer turns out to be right, the both of you turning back toward the hallway connecting the kitchen to the living room as Aunt May peeked her head in, grinning at the both of you with, you couldn't help but think, a shit-eating grin before dipping back into the kitchen.  
  
"... Well we just got shown up." You muttered, Uncle Ben nodding as you both went back to flailing through the shoe questions. Finally you reached the 1,000 dollar question on geography and, to be frank, this wasn't a great series for you or Ben. Admittedly Uncle Ben surprised you by correctly answering Guatemala's biggest neighbor being Mexico but the both of you were pretty much stumped for the others. You were both kind of just walking through mindlessly and, at the end, you pretty much figured that neither of you would grab the 1,000 dollar question of who was Syria's-  
  
"Turkey."  
  
 _"What is Turkey?"  
_  
... Oh right. Desert Shield Veteran. You sometimes forgot that was a part of your uncle's life considering how just utterly soft and kind the older man could be. Even now Uncle Ben just turned, gave you a quick wink, before turning back to watch the rest of the show.  
  
In the end you both put up a valiant effort but, as the bell for the last question rang... well...  
  
"Way I'm counting it my head it's you at 3,600 dollars Uncle Ben and I had... 3,000." Oof, so close but so far.  
  
"Don't sweat it there Pete. You've got a second round to catch up and try to sneak in a win. Besides, didn't I warn you I'd have to show you up?" You smile warmly at that as you roll your eyes ever so slightly.  
  
"That you did Uncle Ben, that you did." The older man just laughed a little as he leaned back in his recliner, sighing as the commercials started to roll.  
  
"... Tell you what Peter, you surprised me by pulling out so many answers there. I knew you were a sharp kid, knew you were the brains in this here household... but I'll be damned if your mind isn't as sharp as a steel trap." The older man laughed warmly as he leaned toward you, offering you a mirthful look.  
  
"Benjamin Richard Parker, swearing!" Uncle Ben winced as Aunt May's voice called from the kitchen, your uncle just laughing at himself as he looked back that way.  
  
"Sorry dear, slip of the tongue." The older man turned back to you as he offered a wry smile. "Take it from me Peter, you'd best keep that bear trap in your noggin' oiled like a fine machine. Else you might end up slipping up like your doddering old Uncle Ben." You can't help but chuckle a bit at that while also blushing at Uncle Ben's earlier praise, even as Uncle Ben sighed in relief as he turned to lean back into his recliner.

"You'll forgive me, Uncle Ben, if I have a hard time associating you with a word like doddering." You say with a slight grin as Uncle Ben just chuckles from his recliner, readjusting himself a little bit so he can get a better look at ya.  
  
"Ah that's kind of you Peter, but it's true. Gettin' to be an old, old man. First the body goes then the mind. Way, back in my hay day..." Uncle Ben chuckles as he gave you a wink. "Well to be frank I probably would still be far behind you in this little game still. I didn't have brains like you did growing up Peter... it's good to see that you're putting that mind to good use and soaking up every bit of knowledge you can. It'd be a shame if you let that head of yours go to waste." You blush a little under the man's praise; you always did think that Uncle Ben undersold how smart he could be. Heck, the man still knew more about mechanics and engineering than you did by a long shot. The stuff he taught you was interesting and, in its own way, fun. Just because he wasn't necessarily as smart as you are or your dad was didn't make him doddering...  
  
Still, you can't help but appreciate that he thinks so highly of you. So you puff out your chest a bit as you give a wry smile.  
  
"In that case Uncle Ben, I think I'll take your advice. One day, far in the future, when I make a killing on the game show circuit I'll be sure to mention you and all the other little people on the way who never stopped believing in me." That'd be easy, after all; right now that was just Uncle Ben, Aunt May and Ned... but hey, they would still be little people compared to your vast game show wealth! Hahahahaha!  
  
"Hah!" Uncle Ben barked out a laugh, leaning over on the side of his recliner as he winks at you. "Think you could cut your family in a bit of that dragon horde you'll be accumulating, Peter? For old time's sake." You tap your chin slightly, faking thinking this over as you hummed nice and loud for him.  
  
"I'm sure I can manage to cut you into my charitable givings. Gotta maintain a good public image when I get rich; otherwise I might not get invited back." The two of you each laugh off the entire affair, amused by the little break as, finally, Jeopardy came back on for Double Jeopardy!  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Oh God you almost felt so bad about this. Almost. The second round turned out to be a stomp in the end, but one in a direction you hadn't quite seen coming. Turns out years of hanging around Aunt May and Uncle Ben had rubbed off on you in ways that you hadn't quite seen coming. Through some form of osmosis, listening in on conversations, stories and shows you'd manage to pick up bits and pieces of trivia that you hadn't even been really aware of logging into your head. Heck, as studious as you were in school you were surprised by some of these answers you were picking up in the history side of things too. Heck, you'd absolutely dominated the Broadway category just off of Aunt May's own excitement about the plays on Broadway...  
  
You'd never admit that you'd only gotten _The Lion King_ answer from having watched the movie version so many times though. As good as it was, admitting that as a fifteen year old boy just felt embarrassing.  
  
Still, the entire round of Double Jeopardy ended up going that way. You stumbled once, answering wrong and paying the price for it... but man, Uncle Ben did so multiple times and ended up starting further behind than when he'd started the round, even off of some solid answers on his end. There was no way to describe it; the only back and forth was, roughly, at the beginning. After a certain point you just accumulated such a lead that, going into the Final Jeopardy, there was no way for you to reasonably lose this.  
  
...  
  
Despite this, and despite how abashed you felt at thrashing your Uncle like this, Ben still had this massive grin on his face the entire time, laughing off his wrong answers and smiling when you managed to get up, practically jumping off of the couch, in order to answer another question correctly. Even going into Final Jeopardy, when it was beyond clear that he was going to lose...  
  
"Hmm, think I'm gonna just go ahead and wager it all on this. Get a shot at having a respectable score at least." The older man remarked with a wistful smile, thinking over his answer to the question while you, on the other hand-  
  
"I think I'm just gonna wager 800, try to get it to an even 20,000." You reply sheepishly as Uncle Ben chuckled mirthfully.  
  
"Oh-ho, playing safe with your lead huh? I can respect that." You blush a little at that, looking down to the side.  
  
"U-Uncle Ben, I-"  
  
"Hold on Pete, it's time for the answer."  
  
...  
  
Turns out both of you were completely wrong. Still, that didn't matter much to you, leaving you with a solid 18,400 as your score. Uncle Ben on the other hand... well, it left him with a big fat goose egg, which just made it all the worse looking next to your score.  
  
"Ah well, you win some you lose some sport." With that Uncle Ben got up from his seat and started to stretch out, his bones popping a bit from sitting for the entire duration. Right, Uncle Ben was relaxing during all of this and you whooped him.  
  
"Hey listen Uncle Ben, sorry, I probably got a little too into that and-"  
  
"And you beat the pants off of me Peter." You can't help but go a bit red at that as your Uncle turned around, grinning at you. "As you should've. You're a smart kid, if you hadn't done your best just because you wanted to spare my feelings... well, pointless in the first place and secondly, I wouldn't want you to ever do that Peter. Be proud of how intelligent you are, kiddo, don't go hiding that light under a bushel." You scratch your cheek a bit at that as Uncle Ben reached into his side pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Now then... I do believe that the winner of Jeopardy is supposed to go home with his cash prize, right?"  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"What?" You don't even just think that, your surprise audible as Uncle Ben walked over and planted thirty dollars in your hand. "U-Uncle Ben, y-you, I can't just-"  
  
"You can and you will. Else I will start throwing an old man fit." The older man just chuckled as he slapped you on the shoulder with his large hand, a gesture that before would've sent you stumbling but now, well, you could easily stand up to. You looked down at the money in hand, already thinking to your Spider-Man stuff. Not enough for the new costume but it was a big step of the way...  
  
...  
  
"Thank you Uncle Ben." You say, genuinely, as Uncle Ben waves you off.  
  
"It's nothing Pete. Now then..." Ben yawned again as he shook his head. "I'm beat, so I think I'm gonna-"  
  
"Boys! Time for dinner! Go ahead and get washed up Ben, I know you must still be a bit of a mess from work." You glanced at your Uncle and, sure enough, bits of dust and oil still splattered his hands and face here and there.  
  
"May, I feeling a bit bushed. I think I'm gonna go ahead and skip dinner today and-"  
  
"I made your favorite."  
  
...  
  
"You did?" You see a slight grin work its way onto Ben's face, as May stuck her head out from the kitchen.  
  
"Went ahead and brought out a slice of lemon meringue too. But if you don't want it I suppose Peter and I can have a lovely dinner to ourselves and just split your share." Your Aunt just shrugged her shoulders before slipping back into the kitchen, Uncle Ben just sitting there smiling as he glanced down at you.  
  
"That woman spoils me Peter, she really does." The older man just clapped his hands together, rubbing them greedily as he went off to go get himself cleaned up, leaving you in the living room, a wistful smile on your face and thirty dollars in your hand...  
  
Your family was pretty great.


	22. Saving Liz

"Where is Flash anyway?"  
  
The lunch hall was a blur of motion and sound as various students picked up trays and then went off to eat. Most sat with friends, some sat by themselves and others just kind of sat near other groups of people; not necessarily their friends but not wanting to look like the loner either. Perhaps a good opportunity to mix and mingle, most of the time what ended up happening was that groups of friends would just end up sitting together to talk among themselves...  
  
Not that you and Ned were ones to judge, considering that's exactly what you two were doing. Still, most of the time everyone kind of kept to themselves. However, for you and Ned, there was a 200 lb gorilla in the room that seemed oddly absent, one who from time to time took some moments out to lightly haze the two of you before going over to sit with his friends. It was those friends who, upon addressing the missing Flash Thompson, caused you to glance up.  
  
"QB usually doesn't take this long to get here for lunch. Something must've come up." Randy commented idly but nonetheless shrugged, his cool personality coming through as King Kong nodded his head.  
  
"Yeah... maybe it had something to do with the last test? Flash didn't do so well I think." King Kong commented idly, a mouth full of food as other members of the table winced. Hobie Brown opened his mouth to speak-  
  
"You don't think they're gonna suspend him do you? This is the big year! We can't get off our hot streak just because of some dumb test!" But immediately shut it once Sally spoke up, her somewhat shrill voice easily heard over the din. You feel Ned rib you a bit as you turn to look at him, readjusting your fake glasses to keep the rims from obscuring him.  
  
"You think they'll actually keep Flash off the team?" You shrugged; Midtown High was an academic school that put a lot of focus into preparing kids for college... but it did have a rather robust sports program too.  
  
"I find it pretty hard to imagine if Flash did bad on one test they'd kick him off immediately. That'd kind of suck, don't you think?" You see Ned screws up his face in concentration as he thinks that over.  
  
"Not being able to do the thing you're really good at an that you like because you slipped behind in your grades... yeah, that'd suck." Ned had to admit, though he fixed you with a bit of a look. "Though I don't know how much sympathy I'd be able to work up if that were the case. I mean, you know-"  
  
"Yeah, it's Flash. Still." You shrugged again, kind of undecided on that yourself as the two of you continued to eat. Soon enough, however, Liz Allen's cell phone began to chime, the cheerleader picking it out of her pocket in order to check it over.  
  
"Oh, it's Flash..." The table in question glances over at Liz reads. "Looks like you're right Kenny, Flash didn't do so well on the test... says coach is keeping him for a bit for a lecture and having him put away the equipment 'to teach him a lesson'."  
  
"Yeah, sounds about like couch. Could be worse, sounds like they ain't kicking him off yet." You see Rand comment idly as Liz read another message that soon buzzed in. A slight blush hit her cheeks before a small grin worked its way onto her lips as she put the phone away.  
  
"Glory, could you do me a huge favor and throw my stuff away when you're all done?"  
  
"Hey, if you're not gonna finish it I'll eat it." Glory Grant fixes King Kong with a look, earning a quick 'what' before she shakes her head.  
  
"Better than it going to waste I guess. Still, sure Liz, I guess I can take your tray up instead. Why though?" Liz smiled as she stood up, grabbing up her things.  
  
"Flash just asked if I'd come over to keep him company. Coach left and he's still got a few things to get moving."  
  
"I'm sure he does." The table interspersed with slight gasps and chuckles from Randy's comment, a wry grin on his face as Liz just shrugged and combed a strand of hair behind her ear.  
  
"We'll be back in time for class! Thanks Glory!" You watch as Liz Allen quickly makes her way out of the cafeteria, leaving the scene relatively quiet as most everyone returned to their business. Not long after, maybe a couple minutes, the doors opened again and...  
  
Flash Thompson?  
  
"... QB? You're here?" King Kong asked, visibly confused, as Flash sighed and threw up his hands.  
  
"Yeah, sorry. Teach kept me for a while after class. Wants me to start tutoring with her after football practice after that last class. Sucks but, hey, better than being kicked off the team." Flash looked over the table, the blond's eyes narrowing as he took notice of something peculiar. "Where's Liz? Figured she'd be here by now."  
  
...  
  
"She's with you." Glory said, befuddled, as Flash raised an eyebrow with her.  
  
"Well she isn't Glory."  
  
"Well she's supposed to be Flash." Sally spoke up as the quarterback turned his gaze over to her. "She got a text from you saying you wanted some company while you put some equipment away for your coach." Flash visibly scoffed at that.  
  
"Friggin' impossible. I don't even have my phone on me; must've left it at home or somethin'." At this point even you were furrowing your brow as you watched the scene unfold.  
  
"Well it's what happened QB. Liz went off just a couple minutes ago to meet you." You watch as Flash frowns and looked down to the side before a visibly annoyed sneer forced its way onto his lips.  
  
"Dammit. Some asshole must've jacked my phone and texted Liz. Probably screwin' around with the both of us. If she's supposed to meet me at the equipment locker..." Flash quickly turned to get a move on, causing the other football players at the table to stand up.  
  
"Want us to come and back you up, QB?" Randy asked, the young Robertson man, lightly cracking his knuckles as Flash shook his hands.  
  
"No point in us gettin' in trouble. Want to just get a point across to whoever this jackass is, not actually cause any trouble. You all just sit tight, I'll be right back." The other football players frowned but, hey, their quarterback made a call. Flash quickly exited through the same doors that Liz had minutes earlier while the rest of his table sat down and, albeit somewhat distractedly, continued with their lunch.  
  
"Huh, weird for someone to try and turn the tables on Flash like that. Weirder way of going about it too, huh?" Ned asked, taking an idle bit out of his lunch as you just continued to frown. You... didn't know. Something about this didn't feel quite right. Something felt off. It wasn't your Spider Sense ringing but, after a certain point of doing this superhero thing... you dunno. Maybe you were starting to build up some kind of intuition.

...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You really hoped that your bad feeling didn't pan out... but if it did...  
  
"Psst, Ned." You lean over towards Ned, your best friend glancing over from his lunch as you pushed back on the table. "Listen... uh, tell next period's teacher that I went to the bathroom or something. I'm going to go after Flash and check things out." You see Ned looks confused for a moment.  
  
"Why? Seems pretty straightforward; someone's punking him and he's probably gonna push them around a bit... or is that way you're heading that way?" You shake your head a little at that as you stand up.  
  
"... I don't feel like Flash would stir up that kind of trouble but... I dunno, I got a weird feeling about it. Can't really think of someone who'd do something stupid like that with Flash. Plus I just wanna be sure nothing bad's gonna go down." In the end Ned just nods his head at that, continuing to eat his food as you walk off. With lunch going on in full no one was really keeping an eye on you or, if they did notice you, would even bat an eye at you leaving. Most would assume that you were going off to your locker or to the restroom or something. In the end, upon exiting the lunchroom you break into a small jog, nothing too fast that would get you noticed if caught on camera or seen by someone. No point breaking out the abnormal speed when you're supposed to be an asthmatic weakling.  
  
'Alright so... the supply closet over by the field is where they're going, right? That'd make the most sense given which way they both left and what the text Liz got said 'Flash' would be doing.' Nodding to yourself you quickly do your best to make your way to the location in question. As you approached the exit door to the field... you couldn't help but feel a weird feeling kicking up in your gut. Something was wrong.  
  
 ***Crack*  
**  
That bad feeling was almost immediately immediately reward when you heard the 'thud' of leather and metal against flesh, your body immediately ducking as you tried your best to sneak up to the windows of the exit door to peak out. Though the windows themselves were thin and oh so barely wide enough for you to get a good view, your eyes widen in surprise at the sight laid out before you. Immediately coming into view are three men, older men, men you'd never seen around school or anywhere on campus. Dressed in what could only be described as business casual in any other situation the men had on wide brimmed hats, dark sunglasses and black leather gloves, their faces obscured handkerchiefs tied around them. One of them had a pistol out, its grip held in such a way that the butt of the gun was easily presented, the other with both hands occupied silencing and keeping a firm grip on someone well within his grasp and the last keeping his gun at the ready and his eyes peeled for any sign of trouble.  
  
The person in the grasp of the second gunman was none other than Liz Allen, the teenage girl struggling as hard as she could, the feint cry of her screams muffled against the hand of the second tough holding onto her, his hand roughly grasped around her waist such that it looked fit to bruise her. Finally the last person you noticed, Flash Thompson, a rush of blood trailing down his eyebrow as, with the scene coming together, it became clear that the crack you'd heard was from the man standing in front of him, above him, cracking him upside the head with the butt of his pistol. These men were larger, larger than Flash, and clearly pretty dangerous.  
  
One of them prepares to open their mouths to speak when, suddenly, the lookout glances your way... and your eyes meet. Crap, you can't even move in time before a gun's trained on you, the man who just struck Flash a blow to his head glancing your way as he kept his own pistol at the ready and trained on Flash Thompson.  
  
"If you know what's good for you, you're going to stand right there. We're going to walk away, slowly, with our guest in tow and be joining the rest of our friends. Over a dozen others where we came from so please believe that any attempt to be a hero is gonna cost ya. She'll be coming with us; rest assured that if we hear any cops coming, she's dead." You see Liz's eyes go wide as she renews her struggles against the tough, clawing at his arm and, actually surprisingly, biting at the hand around her mouth...  
  
For her effort the man rears his head back and slams it into the back of Liz's head, sending her reeling for a moment. Despite the show of force... well, it's easy to tell there wasn't much actual trauma there. In fact, the thug's threat against Liz's life rings hollow in your ears as well...  
  
It isn't quite as hollow when he points the gun Flash's way.  
  
"We see you make a break for it before we're out of sight then, I promise you, you and this kid here will have a couple bullets lodged in your head." It 'really' didn't ring nearly as hollow. "So you just sit tight." With that, the thugs begin to retreat, Liz in hand and being dragged along while one guard keeps a gun trained on you while the other keeps one trained on Flash. You watch them slowly walk away... fuck, what could you do. You could run out there and stop them but at the cost of showing off to a still very conscious Flash Thompson the fact that you definitely had superpowers, something you couldn't see going well for you. Not to mention that, while you could probably easily dodge their gunfire, you couldn't be so sure about Flash. Your agility wouldn't help him in this situation after all. On the other hand, if you didn't these guys would get away, likely to a car...  
  
...  
  
But... you could pursue. Your locker. Your backpack. Stuffed down at the very bottom and hidden under piles of papers. Your mask, your costume, your symbol, your Web Shooters. Brought to school in case you wanted to go out and train or patrol immediately after school. If you waited for them to get away you would be giving them time, time to get ahead... but you could find a way to get into costume at least if you did...  
  
It all just came down to one question; how did you want to play this?

You kept still. Terribly still but still nonetheless. For now, with guns trained on you and Flash and you in your full on civvies, you couldn't do anything. Well... you could. You could go out there and clobber these guys, try to beat them down before they got away... but that'd be your only option. No Web Shooters, no costume, no nothing else. You versus them... with Flash and Liz's lives on the line. If you messed up, if you couldn't protect Flash and he died because you got too aggro, because you rushed this when you didn't have to...  
  
You wouldn't live that down.  
  
So you kept your cool and kept your hands up. You didn't charge out and try to beat the everloving daylights out of them. That'd just make things worse and you were intent that everyone, except for those goons, were gonna walk out of this perfectly fine today. Still that didn't mean you did nothing or that you were just sitting back and waiting for them to disappear. Your eyes, which only months ago now wouldn't have been able to see them from so far off even with your glasses, now narrowed in on them as they traversed the football field. You kept a careful eye on them as you mentally checked off where they were heading. Funny; they weren't heading to the parking lot just off the field; they were actually heading out the back way, probably toward the teacher's parking lot. Made some amount of sense; the field parking lot was practically out in the open and easy for anyone to see, so then dragging a fifteen year old girl would've been an easy spot.  
  
Probably best to take the longer way if it meant they were less likely to get spotted. Soon as they disappeared around a corner though you acted, immediately pushing open the door as you looked over at Flash, your erstwhile bully. That, however, really didn't matter right now.  
  
"Flash!" You quickly called out to him and watched as, confused and panicked, he turned to face you. His left eyebrow was busted open from the hit, blood steadily trickling down the left side as his face as he tried to make sense of you of all people being here.  
  
"P-Parker? What are-"  
  
"Look I got a little nosy and followed you, doesn't matter right now!" You quickly pulled out your cell phone. "Listen, I'm going to call the cops. You rush to the administrative office and tell them what happened so that they can keep people from going out while those guys are still roaming about!" To his credit Flash didn't take the time to harangue you or even throw around too many questions... 'right now'. You watched as, instead, Flash pushed himself up onto his feet, shaking a bit as he held onto his head, before nodding.  
  
"Uh, yeah, right! That's what we'll do! You get on the line with them right now Parker or I swear I will actually beat you up later!" Well it was good to know he cared enough at any rate. You quickly ducked out of the way as, like a speeding car, Flash took off down the halls, heading for the administrator's office immediately. You, on the other hand, kept your promise and dialed in 911... and then proceeded to make a light sprint for your locker.  
  
 _"Hello, 911, what's your emergency?"  
_  
There was an odd disconnect between the cool, calm and collected voice of the 911 operator and your own situation right now that you couldn't quite make, breathing harshly as you were to give the impression to any passersby that you were pushing yourself as hard as you could.  
  
"Yeah, hello, I'm a student at Midtown High and I just witnessed a kidnapping! Three assailants with guns kidnapped a girl, Liz Allen, from my school at the football field! I don't know how many of them there actually are but last I saw they were taking her away to the teacher's parking lot!" You quickly said as you practically skidded while making a tight turn. Locker, locker... locker, aha!  
  


 _"Okay young man, did you get a chance to ID their vehicles?"_ The operator asked calmly, you shaking your head as you reached your locker door. Okay, locker lock, locker lock, locker combination. Just gotta pull that up.  
  
...  
  
Oh man brain don't fail you now, you can't fumble with your combination now of all times! Come on... you quickly punch in the first three sets of numbers that immediately flair into your mind as you implore your brain. You give a small cheer, privately and to yourself, as you force open the locker.  
  
"Sorry, I didn't, I couldn't see where they were parked from where I witnessed the kidnapping!" You declared as you immediately grabbed your backpack, pulled it out of your locker and then closed it before making a break for the staircase.  
  
 _"We'll see what we can pull up on your school's security cameras concerning this incident. Until then we're sending over a few squads of cars; hopefully they'll be able to cut off the kidnapping attempt. Otherwise they'll be there to keep peace at the campus. Thank you very much for your call young man, please stay in a safe place on campus so that, should any altercation occur-"  
_  
"Yeah, I understand, no need to get more innocent people caught in this. Thanks, I'll be sure to do that, bye!" Assured that the police were now on their way you quickly slid your screen around as you quickly used your shoulder to open up the staircase door, quickly ascending up it until you could reach a window. You got to the app, lovingly disguised thanks to Ned right next to a newly downloaded Pokemon Go and put it to work. As far as anyone would know, you were safely at Midtown High, waiting out this situation like the rest of the student body.  
  
However, that was far from the truth. As you cautiously opened one of the windows in the grand staircase that connected the various levels of the school, save the roof, you quickly slipped on one of your Web Shooters from your backpack. As you climbed out and closed the window behind you a Webline was fired from your Web Shooter as you sought to save time, quickly zipping up the remaining side of the school building as you made your way to the roof.  
  
Okay, step one get on roof. Step two, start stripping while looking out for the bad guys.  
  
As you peeled off your long sleeve shirt, shivering as you exposed your bare chest to the cold winter wind, your eyes scanned down at the ground beneath you. You tried your best not to think about how having to change out your shoes meant that you'd be barefoot on the cold roof, even without snow the pebbles and gravel on top of the roof was very cold, as you scanned about. You tried to find her, you tried to find any sign of her and, surely, there must've been tons of those rights? Surely Liz would be thrashing about and crying out, trying to get someone, anyone, to notice her... and you were supposed to be that someone, you were supposed to be a superhero and spot her.  
  
However, as shoes and pants came off, quickly replaced by your costume's shoes and pants, you realized that you hadn't spotted her out yet. That you hadn't found her. That, somehow, three assholes dressed in black business casual in the middle of the Goddamn day carrying around a screaming young woman dressed in very bright colors had somehow slipped you by! Idiot, how could you have messed that up! At least Frank Castle was dressed in all black in the middle of the night and trying to actively avoid being spotted by you...  
  
That thought made a chill run down your spin that had nothing to do with the wind. What if you didn't spot her. What if you didn't find her. What if they just drove off without you being any the wiser. What if they just got away with Liz?  
  
Who knew what would happen to her?  
  
The hoodie was slipped on over your head, the hood left back as you popped your hands into your gloves. On your chest stood that Symbol, that Symbol you'd made to represent yourself... your superhero identity. The white spider, symbol of The Spider-Man. You couldn't fail. Not here; Frank Castle getting away was because someone's life was in danger and you needed to save them first...  
  
Here, someone's life was in danger first and foremost. You couldn't afford to fail. Not again, not this time.  
  
Not as Spider-man.  
  
Still, as you glanced around you could feel a pit forming in your stomach. A black, ugly pit as you ground your teeth, eyes desperately glancing to and fro, here and there. No, no no no. It couldn't be. It couldn't be that you'd lost them again! It... it couldn't... no. Liz, what were they gonna do-  
  
 ***Tumble tumble*  
**  
"AH! You fucking bitch!"  
  
There. A sound. A voice. A grown man cursing at a woman. A voice too familiar to you. Your eyes immediately snapped over in the direction of the noise along with your head. Two nondescript black vehicles, cars, lined up in a row. One driver and two free in the back, one driver and two free in the front. One guy, gripping his hand and shaking it off, as if in pain, glaring through an open door. Liz Allen tumbling a little way across the ground, her hands bound together by this time as she just desperately tried to kick and force herself away even after throwing herself out of a moving vehicle.  
  
Them just grabbing her, kicking and screaming, back into the car. They were a ways off, nearly out onto the road at this point. You had to get to them...  
  
But between them and you was a wide open football field. You could go around the long way, pursue them after swinging around Midtown itself to get into a better position, but other buildings for you to Web Swing on would still be a ways off... not to mention these two cars could get completely and utterly lost in traffic before you could even get there. There wasn't time. There just wasn't time. You needed to clear this huge distance and fast... but how?  
  
 ***Cl-Clunk, VRRRRRRRRR*  
**  
Just then your ears were treated to several heating units across the school suddenly kicking in, likely blasting some more heat into the school in order to keep out the chill. Your eyes focused on them, narrowing down to a couple that were pretty close to each other...  
  
...  
  
In an instant you raised your hands up, positioned it just above your head... and then slipped your mask on, goggles easily finding their way into the right place on your face. Peter Parker couldn't have crossed that distance in a short enough time...  
  
But you sure as Hell were going to bet that Spider-Man could.  
  
You take a deep breath and quickly break into a sprint, shoes beating against the gravel as you immediately fire out two new Weblines, sticking them to nearby heater ports. You keep running through, stretching them out and stretching them out before you flip around, continuing to pull tightly on the Webbing as you sought to get it to just below its breaking point. You weren't aiming directly for the cars; even from this far off you wouldn't be able to clear the whole distance you wanted. So you moved your aim just a bit and instead aimed for something that would, hopefully, help get you the rest of the way.  
  
The football goal posts, those great, tuning fork looking structures.  
  
You kept pulling and pulling and did so until you were sure, even by sound, that the Webbing was at its very limit...  
  
This was nuts... but you'd gotten used to doing nuts these days.  
  
So you held your breath as, suddenly, you pulled your feet of the ground... and were sent absolutely soaring through the air. The tension built into the Weblines immediately translated into catapulting you through the air, sending you flying with such speed and such strength that you had to laugh from how fast you were going. Immediately covering a great distance of the football field in seconds, you felt like you were, honest to God, flying through the air. Still, the ride wasn't over yet and you still had more work to do. So you took a look at the structure you had aimed yourself forward and, once again, took careful aim with your Web Shooter. If you messed this up now then, boy, were you beyond boned. Still, you believed...  
  
 ***Thwip!*  
**  
You fired off the Webline just as you were encroaching on ten yards. You wanted to be a little closer so that you wouldn't just crash into the ground as part of your swing but, with how fast you were going, you'd be closer in no time. Sure enough the Webline connected just as you dived down as part of this crazy swing, bringing you low to the ground. So low that your feet just barely skid against the grass of the football field, your shoes grazing the grace as some of it even kicked up from how fast you were moving. Still you just continued to push yourself into the swing, ascending higher as your Webline carried your momentum forward...  
  
Then you let go and just gave a great, echoing laugh as you soared through the air again, easily clearing the divide between Midtown High and the rest of Queens. You easily rocketed over the football field's parking lot and, with another quick shot from your Web Shooters you connected to a building and started swinging through the city. Amazing timing, perfect! Now, to just see where those assholes turned off to...  
  
Aha! Found them!  
  
Your eyes narrowed in on the two cars blissfully following traffic laws as they did their best to try and blend in to the busy midday traffic of Queens. Little did these guys know that they probably should've put the pedal to the metal considering what was coming your way. Because it wasn't a matter of chasing them down; they were obeying traffic and just keeping forward at a steady pace. You were going to catch them...  
  
The only question now was what was your plan once you did catch up?

Alright, you took stock of the situation; two cars lined up front to back, staying roughly even with each other in traffic. As you fired off another Webline and continued on to catch up to them, you further recalled that Liz was in the car in front. It'd be the priority, obviously, but even before that you had a much, much bigger problem; keeping these goons from just gunning their vehicles and trying to run away. Immediately the answer came to mind; clogging up the exhaust pipes with Webbing like you'd done in the previous car chase. The idea had proved solid then and it should prove plenty solid now if you could land your shots. Only question was... how could you fire off Webbing into both at once while swinging.  
  
...  
  
Well... the obvious answer was to not be swinging. Now how to comfortably manage that...  
  
...  
  
It didn't take long for your brain to fire through a litany of options before you landed on the last, and only, possible answer. It might be a little rough on you but, if you pulled it off, you'd be perfectly positioned to take out both of their cars without them even being the wiser.  
  
All you had to do was not mess up...  
  
...  
  
Please don't mess up, otherwise this might really hurt.  
  
You immediately began your dive down. Well, it wasn't really a dive, you were lowering your body's mass to try and pull the Webline down, letting yourself sink low as the arc of your swing began to hit its bottom. You were getting as low as you could under the circumstances, doing so at such a time where you were getting ready to be right on top of the vehicles. Before you reached that point, however, with the ground little more than a dozen or so feet below you, you let go of the Webline, causing you to just soar through the air as your momentum slowly began to give without the elasticity of the Webbing.  
  
That was your intent, however. As you immediately flashed out your hands and took careful, careful aim at the exhaust ports of both vehicles, absentmindedly sticking out your tongue underneath your mask as you calculated all the little variables in your head. Come on... come oooon....  
  
 ***Thwip Thwip!*  
**  
You fire both shots and, as they soar through the air, you can't help but give a short cheer as you watch them both sink into the exhaust ports, easily gunking them up and clogging them as you... continue to fall. Oh right, you let go of the Webline. You quickly tuck your body into a roll as you approaching the ground, trying your best to further arrest your momentum as you prepared for a rougher landing. You gave a short cry of pain, a little bit of concrete burn likely finding its way onto you as you roll out onto the ground, going into a slight tumble as you sough to disperse the last of your momentum rather than let it crash hard against the ground. Ouch, it felt kind of like burning... but aside from how roughed up your costume might be, you had to imagine you were otherwise fine. Nothing a little time for your healing factor couldn't fix.  
  
As you landed though you noticed the one guy in the back seat look back at you, blink, and then look back forward.  
  
...  
  
Seconds later the guy threw his head back around to look at you, almost in disbelief as to what you was seeing, before he reached up to alert his two friends. Well, the back car had been alerted to your presence but you could hope you'd still have the element of surprise on the car that Liz was in. Now then...  
  
Time for a slightly messier entrance.  
  
You took a deep breath as you lightly hopped up into the air, firing off both Web Shooters as you sank your shots against the metal frame of the car up in front. Shaking off the slight jitters you had you immediately jumped up even higher and harder, jumping back at the same time. Immediately your Webbing began to go taut and rise with you, stopping itself from grinding onto the roof of the other car as you went about as high and as far back as you could... which was pretty far.  
  
However, the natural elasticity of the Webbing proved too much for your own impressive hops to overcome and, soon enough, you were shot like a pellet out of a slingshot toward the back window of the car holding Liz, your target. The impact of the Webbing seemed to catch their attention as the goons, and Liz, looked back out the window just in time to see you soaring through it. You winced and forced yourself into a position feet first into the air, looking to hit the impact first with your shoes and legs so as to, hopefully, let you sail through the glass.  
  
A shattered back window, the surprised, girlish cry coming form an unsurprising source and Liz Allen's own cry of surprise told you that, yes, you had sailed quite easily through the glass. You immediately impacted against the back of the front seats and heard, for one, a strangling cry like a man being choked by a rope and the cracking of what sounded like bones as a groan of pain came from the passenger side. Sounds like somebody wasn't wearing their seat belt. Such a shame. Finally you pushed yourself off the seats and hopped up, using your hands initially to stick to the ceiling before planting your feet up there as well, looking down at the occupants of the car as the adrenaline kicked in.  
  
"Hello there everybody! Spider-Man here, though I guess introductions are pretty unnecessary at this point. I've recently become internet famous after all so you've probably heard of me." Admittedly this quip was in small part you gloating... just a small part though. The reason why it was mostly a quip was because, well, these guys, and Liz, looked utterly blown way looking at you. Between your entrance and the fact that you were sticking to the ceiling of the car like you were, you had to imagine they'd be thrown for a loop even if they did know you.  
  
"What the, who the... get this freak!"  
  
Judging by that though, they really still didn't know who you were yet. So a volley of punches came your way as the crooks tried to turn on you to beat the crap out of you. Which, first off rude and second off was something your Spider Sense barely registered as a threat except to guide you in dodging the attacks coming from the guys in front.  
  
"Hey, rude! I'm a Z-List internet celebrity, you have no right to treat me this way!" You quickly quipped out again as you took stock of the situation. Okay then, Liz was in trouble and you really didn't have time to make a spectacle of this like you did the last time you were in a car stopping crooks. Webbing wasn't the answer this time... good old fashioned fisticuffs were...  
  
Man you really needed to stop picking up old person vocab from Uncle Ben and Aunt May.  
  
"Gotta say, not a big fan of the outfits you guys got going for you." With that thought in mind you sprung into action, quickly reaching forward to get into the face of the guy sitting right next to Liz and keeping a light grip on her. He does his best to avoid you as you throw your punch but he's way too slow and you're just too agile for him. The punch immediately strikes his solar plexus and, while you're silently thankful that there's no crunch and no sign of serious damage, you still watch in fascinated disbelief as the guy gasps for air, the blow having forced all the air out of his lungs, before he gracelessly passes out onto the floor of the car, eyes having rolled into the back of his head.  
  
Wow you really were a lot stronger than you used to be. That wasn't even you using full strength either!  
  
"I mean, for real guys. Sex offender casual? Surely you could've done a bit better?" You quickly swung around, spinning on one hand sticking to the ceiling as you turned your attention to the driver and just started trying to lay into him. Trying being the key word; despite finally landing some punches here and there after a while he actually managed to surprise you by dipping and ducking out of the way out of most of the early thrown fists. Heck, even after you've thrown what you had at him he's still standing and throwing punches back at you! A punch you still manage to dodge even as his friend doesn't even seem like he's properly swinging for you, but still, you were kind of impressed!  
  
"Sorry if that's kind of offensive, I was just assuming cause... you know." Finally it's your go to slip forward and start beating these two guys about again; you quickly punch the guy right in the chest and, finally, after enough of a beating he finally bends forward and slams against the steering wheel, causing the horn to beep from his weight. You delivered a series of blows to the guy who had already gotten so beat up by the dashboard and, by the end of it... well, you didn't even really feel like continuing to beat him up. He looked like he was on his last leg as was. So you decided to just leave him be, no way he was getting away or doing much of anything with how beat he was and turn to getting Liz out of here.  
  
"What with whole kidnapping a teenage girl and everything... speaking of." You turned back around on the ceiling, casually dropping down and landing on the floor of the car as Liz Allen jumped back in surprise. "Hi there-" Don't say Liz, don't say Liz, don't say Liz, "-young lady. Don't suppose you'd be a good Samaritan and open the door for your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, would you?" Liz seemed to look around at the car, at the goons you'd beaten into near unconsciousness and, if the groaning, tired sound in the passenger seat was any indication, complete unconsciousness, before looking back at you and your costume.  
  
...  
  
"Yeah, absolutely. I have no problem with actually helping with getting rescued from these creeps!" Liz Allen loudly declared as she forced the car door open, causing you to smile underneath your mask. Heck, she seemed enthusiastic about this... not that you'd blame her. If you were getting rescued by a genuine superhero after you thought you were going to be kidnapped by creeps, you'd be enthusiastic too.  
  
"Love the energy and thank you. Now, hold on tight we're gonna be going for a bit of a ride." Liz just nodded as she grabbed onto you, while you fired off a preparatory line of Webbing out of the car and onto a nearby building. You remembered the guy's bluff, how easy it was to read that he wasn't actually going to hurt Liz... well, as you noticed the other goons pulling out there guns you just kind of had to hope that the attitude would stick for all of them. Still, if it didn't then... well, hey. You got shot once right? It wasn't as bad as you thought it'd be. So it wouldn't be so bad... right?  
  
Taking a shaken breath you pulled back hard on the Webline, stretching it out before you lifted yourself and Liz up off the surfaces of the vehicle. Immediately, with no anchor point, the Webbing went taut, pulling you and Liz along with it. You immediately fired off another Webline at a nearby lamppost, using your momentum to transfer into a swing with Liz hanging onto you for dear life. Switching hands as you slowly ascended through the air you aimed for the lip of a nearby building and fired, turning into a full on swing that carried you high up into the air.  
  
Thankfully, no bullets accompanied this maneuver and you were able to pretty easily make the rest of the distance with a bit of a running Wall Climb and a short hop up onto the roof of the building.  
  
To say that Liz Allen immediately jumped off of you, breathing deeply and heart obviously pounding in her ears, was a bit of an understatement all things considered.  
  
"Yeah... takes a little time to get used to, trust me. It's a blast otherwise though." You lightly joked as you looked her over. Safe and sound. You'd accomplished your primary goal for this little kidnapping. In all likelihood you could just get Liz back to school and leave everything be here. Then again, that wasn't really you; it wasn't like you were someone who left a job half-finished, right? "You stay up here and stay out of view. I'm gonna go round up the last of the stupid gang." You declared as you headed over to the edge of the roof. Liz could barely even vocalize her surprise or call for you to stop, given how utterly shocked and blown away she was by the swing up here... not that you'd have let that stop you. You had three attempted kidnappers to deal with. Attempted kidnappers who tried to take one of your classmates.  
  
Even if she wasn't your friend, Spider-Man wasn't just gonna let these guys potentially run away from the police. They'd be apprehended if you had anything to say about it... and you did.  
  
You took a deep breath as you dived over the side of the building, firing out a Webline as you quickly sought to at least take one of the goons out with a good kick to the chest right from the get go. Your effort, however, was somewhat thwarted when you suddenly had-  
  
 ***zzzzzRIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNG!*  
**  
Yeah, when you suddenly had that, your Spider Sense, going off like an alarm in your head. It was as if this super sense guided you through the air as gunshots rang out and zipped up toward you, your body twisting and turning in the middle of the swing so as you keep you out of the way of the bullets. All of this made it easier for the goon you had been aiming at to duck out of the way of your feet. That was fine, you guessed, as you hopped off of the Webline, doing a bit of a flip as you did so, to land on the roof of the goons' car, turning to face them as you did so.  
  
"Ugh, more guns? I swear, they always talk about the stick and stones but no one ever talks about the bullets." Immediately you could see the absolutely pissed look in each of these goons eyes as they turned to face you and took aim with their pistols. Your Spider Sense once again screaming in your hear you quickly took to... well... it almost felt like dancing in a way. You heard the shots, you moved through the air as your body and Spider Sense moved to get out of the way of their initial aim as you just kind of twitched and ducked, hopping around and even doing a quick flip to avoid the storm of bullets coming your way. The goons jaw dropped as you landed upon them finishing their volley, not a single bullet having even remotely caught you as you kept your eyes firmly on them.  
  
"So how's about we do something about those nasty things, shall we?" With two quick flicks of your wrists you fired off two Weblines that smacked right into the guns of the goons, whereupon with a pull at your full strength you managed to tear the weapons out of their grip, easily tossing them nice and far out of their reach. The one goon you hadn't disarmed grit his teeth, angry and irritated, as he trained his gun on you again and just opened fire. Once again your Spider Sense helped you duck out of the way of the shots, each missing despite the goon's, admittedly very impressive, best effort.  
  
...  
  
Seeing this it was of no surprise to you that the disarmed thugs immediately made a break for the car you were standing on, hopping in and likely looking to gun it to throw you off and make their getaway...  
  
A shame that their engine blew up in a cloud of built up exhaust and stalled as soon as they tried to gun the gas though. Man, you couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces once you bent down to get a read on them. For now though? Well, for now you fired off another two Weblines, one at the last thug's gun and his chest. The guy looked confused as you pulled, harshly, on both, slamming him into the hood of the car and taking his gun and tossing it out with the rest. You stuck the Webline to the vehicle, practically leashing him like a dog or a toddler as he tried to pull away and find that he was practically connected by a strand of super glue. This time no matter how much this goon tried to force his way away he just couldn't break the line.  
  
Good, good. With that you casually bent down to take a good look at the two would be kidnappers in the car, both of whom were looking completely shell-shocked.  
  
"Okay, this is getting tiring. If you surrender I promise not to web you up into any weird or uncomfortable positions. First and final offer!" You declared with a finger in the air so as to emphasize your point. The goon in the passenger seat immediately raised his hands up to surrender. Smart guy. The other one? Well he got back out of the car and pulled out a knife...  
  
A couple seconds later that knife was, similar to the guns before it, gone and he was stuck to the car same as his friend. They both struggled for a moment before... well...  
  
 ***Thwip thwip, thwip thwip thwip, thwip thwip, thwip, thwip thwip thwip thwip!*  
**  
"You know, the last guys who were trying to get way in a car had Santa masks on. So you guys... I dunno. You're real disappointments. No appreciation for the holiday spirit at all." You shook your head and lightly clucked your tongue against the roof of your mouth as you took a look at your handiwork. Webbed up the remaining doors of the car so the last guy, hands still up in the air, couldn't escape if he tried. His friends were less lucky; rather than sit comfortably in a warm car with a likely heated seat they were heavily webbed to the outside of the car. You hadn't put them in any weird postures, you didn't quite have the nerve or the desire to do that to them, but still they looked pretty uncomfortable to say the least.  
  
Good thing the other three were just flat out unconscious. More web you could use to keep these guys locked down. As you finished reloading you gave the guys a quick salute before you fired off a Webline at the roof of the building you'd left Liz on. Now that these jokers were dealt with it was time to make sure Liz was still doing alright. With a quick zip and a swing you quickly found yourself back up on the roof, quickly pulling yourself up using your Wall Crawling to finish off your ascent as... well, Liz Allen jumped away from the lip of the roof, having obviously been looking over the side to watch your fight. The young woman's eyes were thoroughly wide with surprise, jaw unhinged, as she just blinked at you...  
  
Wow, was this awe? Kind of weird to see it directed your way but... well... kind of exciting too!  
  
Now then... uh...  
  
Oh shoot, you hadn't thought of the next step. Quick, say something before this gets too awkward!

... You know what? You just saved one of your classmates from a group of armed thugs who tried to kidnap her. You beat up three and then easily webbed up the other three. You feel like you've earned a bit of showboating.  
  
So that's exactly what you do; as you approach Liz and get ready to step off the side of the roof you, instead, do a quick flip down to get onto the actual 'floor' of the roof as it were. You spiral a bit in the air, pulling off a stunt that you were quite sure was decidedly superhuman, before giving a perfect, ten point landing, popping back up in front of Liz as she just continued to gawk at you.  
  
"So uh... stupid question I know considering what just went down but... you know... you alright?" You shrug your shoulders slightly... oh God, the one part of the superhero thing that you'd gotten exactly zero practice in and that you still weren't good at; the people aspect. Thankfully for your poor nerves it seemed as though your rescue attempt did wonders for her impression of you as Liz just kind of quietly nodded, combing a strand of hair behind her ear as she seemed to finally snap out of it.  
  
"Yeah I'm okay... well, as okay as I can be. They were grabbing me pretty rough so I think I might have some bruises, I got myself scraped up a bit getting out of the car that one time and... well, no offense but I think you got some glass in my hair." Liz pulled out a small bit of glass from the shattered window from a bit of her hair, causing you to wince. You really hoped none of it would accidentally cut her.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Hey, it's okay. Like, for real. This totally could've been a lot worse if you didn't show up... Spider-Man, right?" Liz pointed at you as you kind of grinned behind your mask.  
  
"You remembered!" You held back as much of your excitement as you could as Liz just kind of laughed.  
  
"Hard not to with that first impression." Liz said, calmly, as she took a deep breath. "It was scary but... yeah, yeah I'm alright. Thanks for asking and... you know, thanks for the rescue."  
  
"No problem... though..." You wince as you look to the side. You really didn't want to ask this so soon after she just got kidnapped but... well, it was important. You did rescue her and you rescued her from... something that wasn't like a normal kidnapping. Ridiculous sounding, you know, every kidnapping is abnormal when you get right down to it, but you meant something specific here. This wasn't one or two random jackasses trying to steal a girl in the broad daylight to run off with her. These guys were pros, knew how to use their guns, had a plan, escape vehicles and were treating her less as a conquest and more as a hostage, a valuable one at that.  
  
She was being kidnapped for... 'something' but what?  
  
"So listen, hate to ask this but... do you know why you were kidnapped, exactly?" You see Liz flinch a bit as you raised your hands. "Rough question I know but... well, it was six professionals coming after you with a plan and, much as I cracked those jokes, it didn't look like they were interested in, well, 'you'. Do you have 'any' idea what they were here for? Anything at all could really help me out."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You watch as Liz Allen glances down to the side, brows furrowed. Yep, you knew that look instinctively. There wasn't any doubt; she had a 'good' idea.  
  
"... Hold on a second." Liz seems to think for a moment as she strokes her chin, eyes narrow as she seems to be trying to recall something. "... Yeah, okay, I'll be staying there this weekend." You watch as Liz pats around herself before heaving a sigh. "Look, you got a good memory?"  
  
... Well you certainly liked to think so.  
  
"Yeah, totally. Completely clean." You say with a nod as Liz took a moment to measure that response before she nodded.  
  
"Good, cause I can't write this down. I'll be staying here-" Liz quickly communicated an address to you which you quickly slipped away into your memory, "-over the weekend. I... I don't want to talk about all this stuff here, if you can understand? I just... want to get back to school and get home. If you come here there over the weekend then I'll tell you what I think's up there, alright?" Well you couldn't exactly argue with that; after everything she went through you weren't surprised she wouldn't want to talk right now. Plus all you had to do was drop by sometime over the weekend and you'd get your info? Sign you up!  
  
"Sounds good, thanks. I'll be sure to drop by... sometime in the evening? I'd prefer if I had a bit of cover so that I won't get spotted." Liz nodded her head at that as you rolled out your wrists, getting slightly anxious yourself. "So... where am I dropping you off exactly? You said you wanted to get back to school?" Liz immediately nodded her head as she pointed back toward Midtown High.  
  
"Y-Yeah! I got to Midtown High, it's where they kidnapped me from! I need to get back there; they pistol whipped my boyfriend in the head when he came by looking for me! I hope he's alright." You resist the urge to say that Flash is, in fact, fine as you nod and walk up to her, motioning for her to grab on. She's... obviously nervous about it but does so as you immediately begin to Web Swing back toward Midtown High. You do your best to take it slow for her sake, not wanting to make it too rough on her given how she didn't take well to the fast swinging, but before long you arrive on the street just outside of Midtown High.  
  
"Think I'll drop you off here. Sorry, can't exactly Web Swing all the way up to the building considering the open campus."  
  
"No no, this is fine. Thank you Spider-Man." You nod at that as you gave her a salute.  
  
"All in a day's work! I'll be by to see you later, alright?" Liz Allen just nodded as you fired off another Webline. Time for you to scarper... and then sneak your way back onto the roof of the school so that you could get dressed back up and then sneak back into the school. It'd be a bit of a pain in the ass but, hey, it was all worth it. You saved Liz Allen from getting kidnapped, got some goons all tied up nice and tight for the cops and you did so without drawing much attention, by the looks of things. After all, when you did manage to quickly get back onto Midtown's rooftop after swinging 'away' you found that your phone only had one text on it; from Ned. He was asking where you were and if you'd heard about the kidnapping. Judging by the lack of further responses nothing too dire had happened on your end.  
  
You'd slipped out of the school with relative ease and, after changing in the cold weather and using the same entrance you had before, slipped back in. One text message, one reassurance and one return from a 'bathroom' break later and you got your final reward for the day.  
  
Liz Allen being surrounded by her friends as members of the student body celebrated her return. No one would know you were responsible but, hey, this was enough reward for Spider-Man...  
  
The secretive fist bump from Ned as you both grinned at the scene was a good runner up though!

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

The Parker Family had an odd relation with most holidays. For most of the calendar they were acknowledged and even celebrated but they largely didn't leave that much of an impact or call for much preparation work. New Years came and went, you all stayed up till midnight for the ball to drop before tiredly heading off to bed, wishing each other and friends who'd done the same a Happy New Year before trundling off. Valentine's Day would see Aunt May and Uncle Ben get dressed up and head out for the evening while you watched the house. You'd joke about how unfair it was that you had to play house sitter to their Valentine's Day shenanigans but even you couldn't help but laugh at the idea of _you of all people_ having Valentine's Day plans.  
  
Saint Patrick's Day came and went and April Fools usually saw some mischief from Uncle Ben. Easter saw you and your family in your Sunday best as you made your way to Church before coming home to a nice little Feast and a game. 4th Of July was a big day in the Parker house but it was different than most. Whereas most households had barbecues, grills and fireworks, the Parkers got all dressed up, Uncle Ben in his military uniform, before heading off to the local chapter of Uncle Ben's unit to celebrate the patriotic holiday with some men, some older some younger than Ben himself, who had come from his unit during the Persian Gulf War and others. October had lost its luster after you and Ned had gotten too old for Trick or Treating and, well, that about covered the major ones. There were lesser ones like, Hell, Arbor Day but the Parkers, yourself included, barely even had time to yawn before it passed by on the calendar...  
  
All of which was to say that while the rest of the calendar did have holidays, they weren't much to write home about...  
  
Until November and December rolled around, of course. Those were the months when the Parkers really got into the groove of things....  
  
And for once out of the year, your Aunt and Uncle seemed to welcome your help rather than constantly worry over your health as they rushed to get everything ready.  
  
"Peter, go help your Uncle Ben get the decorations down from the attic, I can canvas the rest of the kitchen myself."  
  
"Yes Aunt May!" Aunt May's warm voice, thick with excitement, coaxed you off to help Uncle Ben while she quickly began going over the last few nooks and crannies of the cupboards of the kitchen, counting out cans and looking over what you had left as she jotted down what was still available in the kitchen on a notepad. For Thanksgiving the Parker's had a threefold preparation ritual; first was to find out just what you had in the house in the first place for the upcoming Thanksgiving Dinner by counting every last can, box or bit of meat you had stored away. Then was to separate out the stuff that was fresh but not necessarily needed and put that to the side. Finally you all would head out to the grocers in order to buy the food necessary for you all to live on for the next couple weeks _on top of_ what Aunt May needed for Thanksgiving.  
  
Those earlier counted cans and boxes of food were the Parker's contribution to the local Food Bank, as insisted by Mrs. May Reilly Parker herself. Yes sir, if Thanksgiving was anyone's holiday in the Parker Household, it was Aunt May's. Still, Aunt May was hardly the only one busy at work; even as she finished up step one of preparing for Thanksgiving by taking out a few cans here and there from a cupboard underneath the kitchen counter, you lightly jogged, not ran because Peter Parker never ran, up the stairs to see-  
  
"Oh, Uncle Ben!" You did hustle a bit in order to get across the hallway and up the pull-down stairs to the attic, perching yourself just underneath a rather tremendous box that the older man was trying to lug down from the attic by himself. You quickly adjusted your hands and, applying your newfound super strength just a teensy tiny bit, you helped take the burden off of Uncle Ben. Not so much where he wouldn't still be lifting but enough so that he wasn't quietly straining and groaning like he had been.  
  
"Oof, hey there sport. Sorry, ended up dragging the boxes over by the drop off so I figured, hey, I'd try my hand at dragging at least one of them down while you helped Aunt May organize that kitchen. Thanks for the save there kiddo." You nodded as you took careful, careful steps down the attic stairway, the drop down stairs jiggling ever so slightly under each weighty step with the weight of the box on top of you and Uncle Ben.  
  
"Uncle Ben, you really tried to bring down the Christmas Tree first?" You asked, somewhat incredulous, as the old man just chuckled, abashed. There was no way this was anything else but the old, artificial Christmas tree that you all used year after year. While it was a bit sad that you all couldn't afford to get an actual, honest to goodness tree every year... well, you had to admit, you were grateful for it. If you had an actual, dying pine tree in your house for nearly a month you're sure your old allergies would've kicked your ass...  
  
Which, come to think of it, was probably another consideration Uncle Ben and Aunt May had for using an artificial tree.  
  
Huh. It's funny what slowly comes into perspective when you get older.  
  
"Yeah, probably not my brightest idea ever but... well, I keep thinking I can do it every year and every year I end up needing the help. Just get a little too eager to get this down here and stored away so it can be ready after Thanksgiving." You roll your eyes slightly as you smile. 'Eager' might've been putting it lightly. If Thanksgiving was Aunt May's holiday then Benjamin Richard Parker had Christmas. Uncle Ben took to Christmas like a man possessed which, for all you knew, he really was. The man put all his years of work as a mechanic, from things like working on the house to rewiring it, into decorating for the holidays. The Parker house sure as Hell stood out during the Christmas Season, but not because of overly ostentatious decorations lik giant inflatable figures or anything so gaudy. Ben Parker, with Aunt May guiding him in a few design choices, could string lights like it was nobody's business. Those suckers, once put up, would not be moved by any amount of wind, sleet or snow and could burn bright and colorful the entire season. Any of them went out it was almost instantaneous that they'd be replaced.  
  
The driveway, the friggin' driveway, would be lined with Christmas lights, leading up to a garage door that might as well have looked like Santa's sleigh was about to pull out any second. All of that though was almost secondary to the treat for the eyes inside; a majestically set up Christmas tree that stood in front of the living room window for everyone to see, little candles and decorations dotting the entire house that Aunt May and Uncle Ben had bought over the years that all just came together and made you feel...  
  
You dunno. Was 'Christmas-y' a feeling? Kind of had to be at this point. At any rate, you and Uncle Ben successfully got the box containing the tree down and maneuvered over to Uncle Ben and Aunt May's room where it'd stay in the corner until the time for it to be brought out and decorated properly was here.  
  
"Hey sport, I pulled out a couple of the tree toppers from their box and set them up at the top of the stairs. Figured that we'll pick one out and then put the other two back in storage while we're busy doing this, right?" You nodded at that; it seemed sensible enough and, hey, that meant less stuff you all would have to bring down in total.  
  
"Sure thing Uncle Ben. Which one we picking this year?" You watch as Ben Parker stroked his chin a bit, the older man humming to himself before he glanced over at you, a slight smile tugging at his lips.  
  
"Tell you what there kiddo. How about you pick the tree topper this year. About time you took a bit more responsibility in the holidays, wouldn't you say." You chuckle to yourself as Uncle Ben gave a short, hoarse laugh, slapping you on the shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, sure Uncle Ben, whatever you say." You shook your head before looking back up at Ben... who just nodded for you to head to the top of the attic. "OH! You're serious!" Uncle Ben gave a great guffaw at your surprise, all the while you just gave a short, comical salute. "Right, on it, one tree topper coming right up!" You jogged again, quickly heading back up the stairs leading to the attic. It didn't take long for you to find the toppers; Uncle Ben had, helpfully, laid them out on top of the rest of the boxes containing the Christmas decorations. While many toppers had come or went over the years, some getting too old and just wearing out on their own, losing their color or otherwise shattering, others just got broken due to accidents or from something jostling them around in the attic. So for the moment the Parker family only had three toppers... though they were all looking pretty good, if you were being honest.  
  
On the one hand you had old Santa Claus himself; black boots and gloves hugging his rotund gut in the caricature of a great, heaving laugh, nose pink and his red outfit just bringing the entire look together, including a nifty little cap. It was a pretty simple topper but hey, it was nice looking even if it was just good old Santa Claus.  
  
Next to him was something a little more traditional; a big old star. While it did have the odd religious connotation, in all honesty Christmas stars were kind of their own thing at this point. Still, it sat pretty well in the middle of the three decorations.  
  
Then there was the last one, the one with perhaps the most 'out there' connotations as to the holiday but still really wonderful; beautiful, flowing white gown and a golden halo carefully perched on a wire just above the head, an angel with its arms stretched out, open and inviting, as it flanked the other side of the star.  
  
So... this year it all came down to you; which one to pick.

You end up hemming and hawing a bit. Santa Claus was nifty but you wrote him off pretty early. As much as the chipper old fat guy was a staple of the holiday, he just didn't quite have that feeling you were looking for. Christmas-y, sure, but not Christmas-y in the way you wanted to put at the top of your tree. The angel... it had a little more significance to be certain but maybe too much. It just didn't speak to you in just the right way for you to consider it. So that left you with one choice. You smiled and reached forward, grabbing the thin, base part of the star before also picking up one of the smaller boxes. Might as well bring down something 'reasonable' for you to carry while also bringing down the star. No need to waste trips, right?  
  
For you the star was just kind of solid. It stood in the middle of significance, not being too showy but at the same time not being so... commercial about the holiday. It was a nice traditional little symbol that just looked lovely in your opinion.  
  
...  
  
You'd go to your grave before anyone knew that you just unironically used 'lovely' in your head. With that thought put away you quickly jogged back down the stairs just as Uncle Ben exited his and Aunt May's room, surprised to see you back down so quick.  
  
"You brought down another box Pete? You really didn't have to, I-"  
  
"I know, I know. It's a small one though so I can handle it. Besides, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can move on to the rest of the Thanksgiving preparations, right?" You said with a small smile as you put down the box next to the stairs. Uncle Ben just kind of frowned and stroked his chin; it was clear he was concerned but, at the same time, he really did want to get this all done. "Besides, picked out a tree topper!" You declared, rather proud, as you presented the big old star to the older man. Uncle Ben just gave a kindly, warm smile as he picked up the tree topper and looked it over.  
  
"Ah, the good old star. Classic, one of my favorite toppers that we've had over the years. Think your mother actually got it for Aunt May one year for Christmas as one of her gifts. Really sweet of her if you ask me."  
  
"It does sound nice but... I dunno about getting Christmas Decorations as Christmas Presents myself." You'd prefer computer parts or even just a little money for you to spend 'on' computer parts yourself and you knew for a fact that Ned would find that to be a pretty boring gift. You watch as Uncle Ben gives a great guffaw as he looks down at you.  
  
"Yeah I would've felt the same way when I was your age. Trust me though kiddo; the boring gifts start to look a lot nicer when you get to be as old as your Aunt May and I." You shrug at that, a wistful smile on your face at Uncle Ben's self-deprecation as he started to look the star over. "Hmmm... Well it's looking like good news. The old boy is still in good shape after staying up in the attic for a year. Should be just fine for us to use as the topper." You nodded as Uncle Ben carefully looked over the star in his hands, before opening the door to his and Aunt May's room to carefully set it on a night stand. "There, should be safe to keep in here while we finish up our work Peter. Now let's get to it." You nodded, ready and eager to help get this done. In all honesty the biggest challenge of carrying these boxes down isn't even carrying them, but pretending it's harder to carry them than it actually is.  
  
Holding your strength back so you don't lift them out of Uncle Ben's hands, straining and pausing for breath every now and then like this was actually taking some effort for you, having to listen when Uncle Ben suggested the both of you take a couple minute break. The last one you even only really did for Uncle Ben's sake, the older man dabbing his forehead lightly as the two of you worked away at getting these boxes down from the attic. Eventually though you two do get the work done, the boxes of Christmas decorations safely stored in various rooms and the cleaning closet to be retrieved once Black Friday was over. The two of you had done a good job of getting this all done in a timely manner... which was a plus because it was just in time for Aunt May to call up from the kitchen.  
  
"Alright boys, I got everything sorted out and ready. Get down here so we can take the donations to the car and then get to the market!" You hear Uncle Ben wheeze out a quick sigh, laughing to himself as you pretended to brush some sweat off of your own brow. You both quickly end up going downstairs and-  
  
"Woah Aunt May, you think you put enough cans in these boxes?" It wasn't that there were a truly massive amount of cans in total, truth being told. Aunt May was giving but she wasn't going to set you guys back a huge way through charity. It was more that the boxes Aunt May picked... well, they were that big and so a lot of cans and a lot of dried food had to be stuffed in there, stacking up to the top and then some. You see Aunt May fiddle with it, doing her best to tie down the dry food with some loose thread that she had on hand so that it all wouldn't spill around during the car ride as she just furrowed her brow and gave a short grunt.  
  
"I swear, I kept looking all over and I couldn't find any bigger boxes that we weren't already using." You see Uncle Ben grins as he gives a short laugh, walking over to one of the prepared boxes and hefting it up into his arms.  
  
"So I'll also be need to keep in mind to refresh out stock of cardboard boxes is what you're saying then, May?" You hear Uncle Ben remark with a dry laugh, hoarse coming from his old throat as Aunt May turned to face him, hand on her hips as she looked at him.  
  
"Oh don't you make fun of me Benjamin Parker. I know where most of those bigger cardboard boxes went. They went straight into your garage." You see your Uncle look just a touch chagrin, giving a slight nod at that.  
  
"Well you're not wrong May, you're not wrong. Still, it's not so bad and, once we drop these off I'm sure we can get your thread back." Aunt May just shook her head, a slight curl to the ends of her lips as she grabbed another box.  
  
"Oh they're all stretched out at this point so not much of a point. Besides, it's not like I'll miss a few lengths of thread anytime soon." May commented idly as she pointed at the last, and smallest, box for you to pick up. You rolled your eyes behind your two elder's backs and picked it up, following in behind them as you all started to head out to the garage.  
  
"So, looking like we can give a little more than we could last year May. Food budget still looking good for Thanksgiving." You watch as Aunt May rolled her eyes, glancing over at Ben with a wry smile.  
  
"Please Ben, we've been doing this for how many years now? I know how much we can afford to give to charity and how much we need for Thanksgiving. Don't let that stomach of yours get you greedy." Your Uncle just cheekily chuckled as he glanced off to the side, nonchalantly, Aunt May hefted the box in her arms. "Besides Ben, it is the season. We've got enough money saved up from the Halloween rush for me to throw two Thanksgivings at this point. We can afford to give a little more this year." Ben just barked out a laugh at that as he nodded back at you.  
  
"Just makin' sure May. I think it's the right thing to do, we've go the means after all. Just making sure for good old Pete here. He's a growing boy after all, needs that turkey in order to keep growing into a fine young man." You blush at that as both Aunt May and Uncle Ben share a quick laugh, though certainly not at your expense.  
  
"Speaking of Peter, I've been trying to think of what I should make for desert this Thanksgiving. Your Uncle Ben's given his two cents but, you know him. Same thing every year."  
  
"Hey now what's wrong with Pumpkin Pie? It's delicious, it's traditional... it's delicious."  
  
"You said that twice Uncle Ben." You said with a small grin as your Uncle just glanced back at you, offering a slight wink.  
  
"I know."  
  
"Honestly. Anyway, if I want to hear a fresh idea I figure I ask the other Parker man in this house."  
  
...  
  
Parker man? You actually puff up a bit at that, Aunt May so carelessly referring to you as 'a man' making you feel weirdly proud which drew a grin from her.  
  
"So how about it Peter, any suggestions?" You tap your chin and consider Aunt May's request.

"Well... you know what sounds good to me Aunt May? Maybe some chocolate pie this year?" You see Aunt May guffaw slightly, an amused smile on her face as Uncle Ben just laughs loudly on his end, grinning over at his wife.  
  
"You hear that May? You were probably expecting something fancy but turns out Pete there has the Parker sweet tooth himself." May just smiles, slapping Ben on the shoulder as she shook her head.  
  
"Honestly Ben." You blush slightly at Uncle Ben's amusement, the older man's soft laughter filling your ears as May just looked back at you, earnest and warm. "It's still something we haven't tried for Thanksgiving yet Peter so, you know what, sounds good to me. For the main desert the Parkers will have some chocolate pie this year." You grin a bit at that, though you awkwardly tilt your head to the side as you laugh.  
  
"What brought all this on anyway?" Ben looked back at you, grin on his face as he shrugged.  
  
"Well Peter you're getting to be a young man yourself. Young men who help out with holiday preparations, especially with you in your condition-" Right, asthma, "-deserve a say in how the holidays go. Holidays are about the entire family after all. It's about time you got a chance to be a part of that rather than just experiencing it."  
  
...  
  
You smiled, and smiled warmly. You appreciated the gesture, really you did. It also made you so excited for the upcoming holiday season. Thanksgiving was going to be great and all the food and celebrations, even as awkward as some of the house guests could be... well, it was a blast each and every year...  
  
...  
  
It was just a shame you had so much on your mind that you wanted to deal with. Because this would be the first holiday where you'd be thinking something serious you had on your plate. Something aside from last minute homework at the end of the holiday.  
  
Liz, her kidnapping... her reaction basically flat out admitted that there was something going on there. That she had some idea too. If something was causing someone to target people from your school, to try and take them... well, Spider-Man had to step in. No ifs, ands or buts about it. You were a superhero after all and that's what superheroes did.  
  
"You ready to get going sport? Got some shopping to do if we want enough food for the next week and the big day!"  
  
...  
  
"Yeah, I'm ready Uncle Ben."  
  
Course, that didn't mean you couldn't also enjoy what time with your friends and family you could when you could.  
  
A nice shopping trip with your last two relatives in the whole world, your family, before doing a bit of studying and then preparing for the weekend was just what the doctor ordered, after all.


	23. Scavenger

...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Oh jeez.  
  
Socially awkward situation alert.  
  
You blanch as you scratch the back of your head upon noticing them all. You'd decided to go out for a walk today; you'd kind of cut back on the hard work and exercise this weekend so it left you feeling kind of jittery. After all, for the first time in your life you really felt like you had a lot of energy to get up and get moving around so not spending that on exercise or on focusing on smaller tasks left you with a slight buzz in your body that made you... well, twitch-y. To help burn that off you decided to slip away from Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house and go on a nice simple walk through Queens, one of your hoodies on to help keep the slightly chill air out and to keep people from immediately recognizing you, Puny Parker, as being out for a stroll. Then again the glasses would've probably been something of a giveaway.  
  
While you were out you had stumbled across a cafe and, at first, you thought this was your lucky break. Most outdoor cafes were closing but, with the weather staying slightly warmer this time of year, some had chosen to get the most out of their outdoor decorations and keep open, depending on their customers to dress slightly more up to make up for the slight chill that was creeping into New York. You thought that this would be a good place to sit down, maybe buy a bottle of water and give the impression to anyone who saw you that, yes, Peter Parker still needed to stop on even something as simple and low energy as a walk. As you approached, though, you noticed that one of the tables was taken. This didn't start out as a problem, after all, there were plenty of other tables open so you paid it no mind.  
  
Then you noticed the increasingly familiar mop of blonde hair at one of the tables and, much to your shock, your music acquaintance Gwen Stacy was at the table! At first your immediate reaction was to walk up and say hi; after all, it'd served you well the last two times you talked to her and you felt like that strat would continue to pay dividends...  
  
Then you remembered that she was sitting at the table with three other people.  
  
At that point you noticed how hip these other people were dressed.  
  
Plus you noticed the fact that all of them were very attractive young women. A girl with a voluminous, red mane of hair that reached down to her shoulder, with slight curls in her strands that kind of reminded you of that one Pixar movie, the forgettable one, a young woman of Asian descent, though her skin wasn't quite as dark in tone as Ned's despite the fact that she probably got more sun than your best friend if you were being honest and a young black woman hair done in braids at the side that reached down past her shoulders.  
  
Oh dear. Ooooh dear.  
  
You, Peter Parker, had just walked upon a dilemma; your... music acquaintance was hanging out with a group of her own friends. Friends she probably planned on spending the day with and just hanging out. Friends that were complete and total strangers to you. Friends who might not even like you and think you're lame.  
  
After all, that wasn't far from the truth; they looked pretty cool compared to you sans Superhero identity.  
  
They were all probably members of her band to boot! They were probably talking about cool band things! Things you barely understood!  
  
So... problem.  
  
What were you going to do? You kind of wanted to sit down and have some water but... well, Gwen would probably notice you eventually right? You weren't that unnoticeable? Right? Right. So if you did that then Gwen might be hurt that you didn't at least acknowledge her. On the other hand if you did and walked up... would she be upset because you're stepping in on time with her actual group of friends? Her possible band mates at that?  
  
Furthermore, what if they thought you were lame! What if they didn't like you! What if they didn't want to hang out with you even if Gwen might be cool with it! You didn't want to put Gwen in that kind of position where she had to choose between either telling you off or annoying her friends! God, you had to imagine that'd be so awkward!  
  
...  
  
Imagine because, you know, for the longest time you and Ned were each others only mutual friend outside of random people on image boards and fan forums...  
  
...  
  
God you were so poorly prepared for situations like this. You were such a nerd...  
  
What would you do!?  
  
...  
  
Why was the prospect of people firing guns at you less stressful than this?!

Okay Parker just... relax... or relax as much as you possibly could given the circumstances. You took a breath and took off your hoodie, approach the group of four young women as you could feel your feet lightly pound against the pavement as you approached them. You were honestly surprised by that, given how hard and heavy your heart was beating in your chest but, hey, it showed that it wasn't as loud as it seemed. As you approached Gwen and her friends you immediately got your strategy in mind; walk up, say hi and then quickly read the room. If it seemed like you weren't wanted and that you were intruding you'd depart as soon as possible in order to avoid a situation. You'd see what happens but, hey, if worse came to worse then you could employ the strategy you had at the music store and make a polite exit.  
  
So you walked up and, finally, Gwen and her friends took notice of you. The groups variously shaded eyes glanced up at you, leaving you feeling ever so tense as their scrutiny fell upon you. Well... here went nothing Parker, hopefully you didn't get in too deep.  
  
"Hey, Gwen. Surprised to run into you again." You said, as calmly as you could and with as much politeness as you could offer, as you did your best to maintain proper eye contact. At a moment's notice, when the mood turned, you wanted to be able to make your exit from the situation to prevent Gwen from feeling awkward or to keep from intruding on her friends and their-  
  
"Hey there Peter, surprised to see you too. Though, pfft, we do live in the same neighborhood so bound to happen eventually right?" Gwen said, simply and casually, as she took a drink of her tea. That was... well, it was Gwen, so it was bound to be easy with-  
  
"Peter Parker huh? Didn't think you two talked much Gwen." The redhead said, surprised, as Gwen shrugged.  
  
"Eh, when I went shopping for music for us to listen through we happened to run into each other and chat. We've been hanging out a little bit." Okay, so this was the part where they-  
  
"Cool."  
  
"Neat."  
  
"Nice to meet'cha!"  
  
-politely either greeted you or just kind of shrugged and continued on with their drinks and snacks.  
  
Okay... uh...  
  
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything, just thought I'd stop by to say hi." You said with a shrug as you adjusted yourself, causing Gwen to chuckle as she shook her head.  
  
"Eh, nothing too important. We're just shootin' the shit and hanging out. You know, weekend stuff."  
  
"Hey says you; I'll have you know that people find my company and my conversation to be 'very' important, Gwen." The dark skinned young woman said, puffing herself up again as the various girls at the table either rolled their eyes or chuckled.  
  
"Of course Gloria, how foolish of me to say otherwise. I'm sure you'll excuse Peter for the interruption, it seemed like you were about done right?" Gloria, as she was named, hummed to herself as she turned to you. She tapped her finger against her lips for a moment before she gave a quick, comedic shrug.  
  
"I'll allow it, just this once."  
  
"How gracious of you." The young Asian woman said with a chuckle as Gwen gestured around.  
  
"Anyway, where are our matters. Peter Parker, this is [Maria Watterson](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/8/85/Mary_Jane_Watson_%28Earth-65%29_from_Spider-Gwen_Vol_2_19.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20181230150607), [Gloria Graham](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/b/b5/Gloria_Grant_%28Earth-65%29_from_Spider-Gwen_Vol_2_19.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20181230150252) and [Bethany Bandell](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/c/cd/Elizabeth_Brant_%28Earth-65%29_from_Spider-Gwen_Vol_2_28.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20181230201315)." Gwen pointed to each of them in time with saying their name. "Girls, this here's Peter Parker."  
  
"I don't think we've ever talked before, so hey, nice meeting you." Maria said, pleasantly enough, as she sipped at her tea.  
  
"I'm sure you're charmed, but don't worry, that'll wear off sooner or later." Gloria said, offering you a wink as the rest of the table rolled their eyes at her antics.  
  
"You can call be Beth if you prefer that, Bethany can be a bit of a mouthful." Beth had offered as she waved at you once again, leaving you momentarily stunned.  
  
...  
  
Shit! You'd been planning so much for the worst case scenario that you didn't bother to think of what to do if you actually got this far!

"It's nice to meet you all." You reply, almost automatically, as you scratched the back of your head. Admittedly that was a bit... obvious but, hey, obvious was good. Obvious was fine. Obvious would get you through this initial stage of the conversation as you talked to these three strangers. Well, not strangers, you knew their names... then again if you met Tony Stark it wouldn't matter if you knew his name, he'd still be a stranger to you, so you guessed that these guys were still strangers.  
  
Enough of that though; you took notice of something Gwen said earlier about when she met you, about getting the music, as you smiled at the group of young women.  
  
"So, uh, are you guys the friends forming a band with Gwen that she's been talking about?" You asked, a little excited, as Maria chortled ever so slightly.  
  
"Well I certainly hope we are, or else Gwendoline here has a lot of explaining to do." Maria said as she leaned over on the table, causing Gwen to sigh as she shook her head. "But yeah, that's us. We're-" You puff up a bit, excited to finally hear the name of this band that Gwen had been talking about, "-... uh... actually still work-shopping that. Still, yeah, we're the band!"  
  
"I still wish 'The Band' was a free name for us to take. That would've been fun..." Beth let out a pitiable moan as she slumped down against the table, causing Gloria to just shake her head.  
  
"Damn Canadians..." The four young women chuckled amidst their small talk, and you joined in. While you weren't all that hip to music, you understood the basic idea of what they were joking about.  
  
What kind of a name was 'The Band' anyway? It was like if you got spider powers and you called yourself...  
  
Oh right you did.  
  
Huh.  
  
Well it was a good name. In both cases.  
  
"So you guys are just kind of hanging out this weekend, huh?" You asked, shrugging your shoulders as Gwen nodded, offering an apologetic smile.  
  
"Yeah; we're all gonna have Thanksgiving Plans later this week so we thought we'd fit in as much time and band practice as we could. Maria and Gloria here have family in the Upstate and they'll be heading out a day early to spend some time with their cousins." The two nodded as they shrugged.  
  
"Yeah, what can I say; the apartment's big enough for my family here but, man, try to shove ten more people in there and it's gonna get _crowded."_ Maria said with a laugh as Gloria rolled her eyes.  
  
"Just the easiest place for all the folks to show up and pay to stay for a little bit." It was understandable though, given what Gwen said about her own Thanksgivings, it did seem just a bit sad that a couple of her friends wouldn't even be in during the Holiday itself.  
  
"I getcha. I was just heading out for a walk myself. Maybe we can hang out later then, Gwen?" You asked as Gwen nodded appreciatively.  
  
"Yeah, sorry Pete. I'd invite you along but-"  
  
"Girl's day out, I getcha." The four young women nodded at that as you just offered a wave. "Well it was nice meeting you all. Maybe I'll catch you all around some other time?"  
  
"Gotta figure you will there Peter, considering we all go to the same school." You blushed slightly at that as the young women chuckled at your reaction, Beth turning on the charisma as she nonetheless smiled. "Still, totally! Catch ya later!"  
  
"See ya dude."  
  
"Buh bye!"  
  
"Later Peter!" With that nodded and, after gathering yourself back up and slipping back on your hood, you went about finishing off the last part of your little walk. It was nice to actually get a chance to meet Gwen's friends. They all seemed nice, even if they were all, much like Gwen, kind of out of your social league. You hoped they'd have a good time hanging out before they'd have to split up for Thanksgiving though; as nice as the holidays could be in terms of free time, they did still present their own challenges, after all.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"So... let me see if I got this straight Ned. You're watching this documentary on Netflix, the Planet Earth one with the overly British guy narrating it."  
  
 _"That's right."_  
  
"And you think it's really boring?"  
  
 _"Yeah, totally. I mean, I guess some of the stuff is kind of interesting and stuff but... I dunno man, you know this nature stuff really isn't my style."_  
  
"Right, right... but, now here's where I'm getting a bit confused there Ned. Now, instead of doing anything about this like, say, turning Netflix off, turning your computer off or just watching something else other than Planet Earth... you're not doing any of that. Instead you're just sitting there watching something you're not really interested in."  
  
 _"Yep."_  
  
"For no other reason than you don't want to or-"  
  
 _"No, because I literally can't look away Pete."_  
  
...  
  
"Uh huh. And so you called me to ask me to come over and turn it off for you. That about sum it up?"  
  
 _"Yeah that about sums it up."_  
  
...  
  
"Dude if you wanted to hang out you could've just asked instead of coming up with this ridiculous story." You sighed as you approached Ned's house, getting ready to knock to ask to be let inside. You had manners after all and, while you're sure that Ned's parents would be more than fine with you just waltzing it at this point, it still didn't feel quite right to do so unannounced. Still, as you waited by the front door you could practically hear Ned shake his head.  
  
 _"Dude, I'm telling you, I'm not lying! This stuff's like... I dunno. It's low key like digging around in my head and just... I dunno, kind of hooking me! The guy's like, so friggin' British, Pete! The animals are like, well, they aren't that interesting but they're kind of fun to watch and... dude I dunno, it's just so weird man!"_ You rolled your eyes slightly. It generally wasn't like Ned to come up with these kind of weird little requests for you to come over to hang out. Usually he was pretty upfront about it; watch anime, play games, build Lego or just come over to talk about whatever came to mind. More recently superhero stuff had started to get more and more thrown into the mix and he'd call you over with a 'surprise' or to talk about what to do that week in regards to Spider-Man in general.  
  
Here though? He was just being weird. As you opened the door, nodding at Mrs. Lee as you did so, you quickly made your way to Ned's room. Well, whatever. One way or another you'd figure out what Ned actually wanted and then you two could hang out. If Ned wanted to be a weirdo about it he could but once it was over and done with then it was over and done with. You opened the door to Ned's room and saw, sure enough, Ned just laying down on his stomach, hands supporting his head as he watched the documentary playing on his television.  
  
"Pete, thank God you're here, quick just turn it off and then we can hang out. Just don't look at it or listen to his accent!" You rolled your eyes as you walked over to the television, eyes locking onto the screen as a couple of meerkats seemed to be getting up to something. Oh and some kind of black bird, you guessed that was neat.  
  
"Whatever Ned. Let's just get this stage play over with so that we can do something else..."  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
 _["The drongo is the Kalahari's greatest trickster... and these are his victims. A family of meerkats; desert specialists. After warming up in the morning sun the meerkats begin their search for breakfast. The drongo can now begin his tricks, but first must win the confidence of his victims."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEYCjJqr21A)_  
  
...  
  
"Man, animals are pretty dumb, huh Peter?"  
  
"Yeah man, but they're like, animals. You gotta adjust expectations for the poor fellas." You and Ned both laid about, you on your back on the ground looking up at the screen and Ned still on his bed watching with his head perched in hands. You were pretty sure you were going to turn this off but after taking some time to watch it... well, you dunno. It wasn't like it was particularly captivating. Sure, with an interest in science you could appreciate watching animals in their day to day lives and all but... well, it wasn't like it was particularly informative. It was just seeing interesting animals and geographic locations with unique biomes that you wouldn't regularly encounter or see yourself. The commentary wasn't even that informative; it was more just describing what was going on in the scene. David Attenborough could've been cut from the narration entirely and it wouldn't have made a difference.  
  
And yet...  
  
"Oh, thanks Peter. It's rare to see Ned actually sit down to watch stuff like this, but it'll be good for his studies. Here's some popcorn for you boys."  
  
"Thanks mom."  
  
"Thanks Mrs. Lee and, uh, no problem I guess."  
  
Yet here you both were, mindlessly just watching this documentary without a care in the world. The both of you mindlessly going for the popcorn that Mrs. Lee had left for the both of you, taking small handfuls of it and popping the salty and lightly buttered snack into your mouths while continuing to watch a bird use vocal calls to trick a bunch of animals. It was like sitting down and watching a mindless YouTube video about animals for hours on end, but dressed up in an educational manner with a supremely British man narrating over it.  
  
...  
  
"'Meerkat'." Ned gives a shot at mimicking the way Attenborough said the word, causing you to chuckle as you took a moment to glance over at him.  
  
"Pretty good man, pretty good."  
  
"Thanks... just kind of amused by the way he says it is all." You nodded as Ned seemed to take on a thoughtful expression. "You think that's why anyone actually watches documentaries like me? For the narrators? Or do you think it's something else?"  
  
You puzzled that over yourself while watching the screen flicker with images of cute or interesting animals acting ways that were pretty amusing or otherwise interesting with a decidedly British individual speaking over the action.  
  
Hmmm...

"I mean, dude, isn't Morgan Freeman pretty much living proof that good enough narration will make anything interesting to watch?" You asked rhetorically as you chomped on another fistful of popcorn, taking in the salty, buttery goodness as you waved at the screen. "I mean for real; have you seen _March of The Penguins?_ That friggin documentary should be straight checked for mind control, I kid you not Ned."  
  
"I know, right?" Ned said as he rolled over, eyes still on the screen as the two of you casually chatted away, becoming almost as engrossed in this conversation as you both had been in the documentary. "I mean like, Morgan Freeman just has one of those really captivating, immediately recognizable voices. I mean, you recognize him almost immediately as soon as you hear him." You nodded in ready agreement.  
  
"I know right? Like, even people doing his voice poorly usually can get close enough that it's easy to tell what they're going for." Ned clapped his hands as he pointed at you.  
  
"I know dude, I totally know! Like that [zefrank1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFAR3WggSRk) dude on YouTube! The guy who does the short, jokey animal videos! Ah man, it's even a really good accent, I'm glad he's back."  
  
...  
  
"Dude zefrank1 hasn't posted a video for like, years. Ever since he went on with Buzzfeed." You commented idly as Ned shook his head.  
  
"No dude he's totally back! He's been posted new videos like every few weeks! Like, the latest one was on dragonflies!"  
  
...  
  
"Dude for real?!" You said, actually tearing your eyes off the screen to look up at Ned. "Dude why didn't you tell me, those videos were hilarious!"  
  
"Dude I'm sorry I thought you knew!" You shook your head as you groaned.  
  
"Aw man... we're totally watching those!"  
  
"Yeah we are..." Slow but surely both of your eyes fell back to the documentary on Ned's screen. "Riiight after this episode." You nodded in agreement as Ned collapsed back on his bed, the two of you going back to watching the documentary on screen with David Attenborough narrating over it. "You know, as great as Morgan Freeman is, I think I prefer most British narrators to him."  
  
"Dude, that's like, heresy or something." You said with a shrug, not being too too sure on that, as Ned held up his hands.  
  
"I know dude but hear me out. I mean, like, Morgan Freeman's captivating and all that but, like, British folks just like... you know, it's the accent. They all have it and it makes them all sound like... you know, interesting." Ned puffs up. "Like how they talk. It's really foreign and crazy but you know it's not like they're talking in some other language so you can still understand them. Like I just can't get over how differently they say some words! I mean, look, Zebras!"  
  
 _"The Zebruh-"  
_  
"Listen to that! He's saying it weird but I can still get what he's saying! That's, like, totally captivating, man!" ... You couldn't deny, Ned did have a point. "I mean like... _Zebruh."_ You snorted at Ned's attempt at a British accent, causing you to hold a hand over your face as Ned looked down at you. "Okay so I don't have a firm grasp on the British accent."  
  
"Dude it's more than that, you butchered it." You chuckled as Ned threw a pillow at you, your hefty friend rolling his eyes.  
  
"Like you could do any better." You chuckle as you shrug your shoulders at that.

...  
  
You know what, sure, time to crack it out.  
  
"Well I s'pose I know what you're getting at there chap, the way those Brits pronounce words like Zebruh, and Alew-men-e-um is rather amusing." You quickly snapped on your best British accent which, you'd been told, was a rather strong likeness to one as you took another fist full of popcorn. "Cheers to your mum, by the way. Don't know how she does it but man does she get the flavour right." You quickly slammed back that fist full of popcorn, chewing it over as Ned just glanced down at you, shaking his head with an amused smile.  
  
"Man I still don't know how you got so good at that." You shrugged your shoulders as you looked up at him.  
  
"Yeah I don't know either, man. Just a natural gift, I guess. I'm cursed to be able to convince people that I'm interesting and foreign." Ned gave a short snort as he slapped you over the head with his pillow.  
  
"Oh poor, poor Peter Parker. Cursed like that... is that why you're hanging out with me rather than wowing complete strangers with your British accent? Too much of a burden for you to use?" You chuckle a bit as you looked up at Ned, grinning at your best friend.  
  
"Come on man, I can't use this gift in order to wow people. I've gotta be careful with it; with my British Accent I could be king of Midtown... but wouldn't mean anything."  
  
"How noble." Ned joked as the both of you guffawed a bit.  
  
...  
  
"As soon as this episode's over make a break for the remote and do your best to keep it from playing the next part of the documentary." Ned said as you chanced a glance over at him.  
  
"Why can't you, you're closer?"  
  
"Dude my legs feel like jelly from laying here this entire time and you've got super powers. If anyone's going to break the cycle out of the two of us it's gonna be you." You laugh a little bit nod, accepting your job as you both continued to watch. While today probably wasn't going to be much of anything productive... well, you still were glad for it. Between all the training, school, studying and Spider-Man stuff, you were glad that you and your best friend could just spend a few hours out of the day just lounging around. It might not seem like much to some but, Hell, the simple act of eating popcorn and just watching some mindless, if educational, shows with your best friend, the two of you shooting the shit... well, you could definitely see why Gwen chose a similar activity for her friends.  
  
Sometimes it was fun to just sit back like that...  
  
Still.  
  
You really did need to get that remote and stop the next episode if you wanted to get out of here anytime soon. You'd arranged to learn more about sewing from Aunt May and you didn't want to be late.  
  
Even if you enjoyed lazing about... well... there was always work to be done or always something just around the corner. Better to be prepared.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Alright Spider-Man, this was it. What would technically count as your first... well, house call, you guessed. Someone you'd rescued, someone you suspected knew more than what they were able to tell you at first, had invited you over to tell you more. Heck, it was more than suspicions at that point; Liz had all but confirmed she had more to say, more information to give, but that she wanted to wait till a later time. That time, of course, being now and the location being... well.  
  
A pretty nice apartment in a rather upscale neighborhood in Queens, to your surprise. You had decided you wanted to do this later on at night; you really didn't want to do this in the middle of the day where it would be easier to spot you and where Liz might be away from the address she gave you after all... and coming at the break of dawn before anyone was up posed its own problems too; namely actually getting up that early and hoping you could wake Liz up without notifying anyone else. So late into the evening under the cover of darkness it was. You did your best to avoid any high flying Web Swinging maneuvers on top of that; running across rooftops and closing the distance between where you'd suited up and where Liz was supposed to be staying this weekend with relative ease and with, hopefully, very little attention drawn to yourself.  
  
Eventually you did find yourself, like you said, at an apartment building, upscale. You looked at the apartment number and...  
  
Right. Realized this would only tell you what floor she could be on, not necessarily what individual apartment she was in. Thankfully the building was laid out such that it looked like all the rooms had window access; it'd be a pretty awful apartment if people couldn't have natural sunlight, after all. So you quickly zipped up to the appropriate floor and started looking.  
  
You easily, and quietly, landed on the wall as you stuck to it immediately, letting yourself spring a bit to diffuse the energy of your zip over as you positioned yourself just above the row of windows. You didn't want to be spotted so easily and, hey, a figure looking over the top of your window was bound to be noticed less than a head sticking up from the bottom...  
  
Right?  
  
Well you could hope anyway. So you got to Wall Crawling and crawled around the periphery of the building, dipping your head down to check in on various apartments and rooms as you did so. Let's see here... couple arguing loudly, the young lady has a lamp in her hand and the guy's covering his head. Probably should have call in a case of domestic violence later when you'd cleared the scene and could afford for the cops to be alerted. Keep going, another couple and WOAH! Okay Spidey just keep crawling you didn't see anything at all. Jeez Louise people at least wait till you get to your bedrooms. Keep crawling, working upper class guy sitting on his couch with a bottle of scotch. Sad but not relevant. Next window, bedroom, first one of the evening, little kid sitting at his computer playing Fortnite... oh hey, he won! Good for him!  
  
Next window over, looked like the older brother of the kid next door. Talking to someone in a chat room looked like. Next window, living room... empty. Okay, looks like someone was out late. Next window... bedroom, also empty. Though there was a suit and tie hung up on a nearby closet door, likely prepared for the next morning and the bathroom door was open. Someone getting ready for bed? Alright, next window and-  
  
Oh yes! Liz!  
  
...  
  
And an older guy sitting on the bed next to her. He's in a t-shirt and some sweatpants, casual dad wear if you've ever seen it, and it seemed like Liz was doing it just as casual in her own shirt and sweatpants. You'd arrived as it seemed the two of them were getting done after a long while of sitting around and talking. He reassuringly put a hand on her shoulder, his face weathered by years of hard work and stress but still solid as he looked down at her. He looked worried but he seemed serious and Liz... Liz just nodded, resting her own hand on his as she took a few rapid, calming breaths. Didn't take a rocket scientist to put together what was going on here; Liz and her dad having a little heart to heart. Probably about whatever had went down at school.  
  
No duh they'd both probably be pretty worried after that. Still, it was reassuring to see Liz being attended to at least. After a few more short moments the man stood up and stretched out, probably making some older guy noises you'd hear Uncle Ben mumble after sitting around for a while, before wavin to Liz and wandering off, probably back to his bedroom. Liz just nodded and waved, heaving a sigh as the door closed and leaving her to her lonesome. You decide to wait a few moments, even skittering back over to the guy's bedroom to see him close his door, the bathroom door and lay down in bed to sleep before heading back to Liz's room. It seemed like Liz was just about to get ready for bed herself when-  
  
 ***Tap tap tap*  
**  
You lightly tap on her window a few times to get her attention, the young woman's head snapping over in a second with a wide-eyed expression. At first nervous and surprised the look soon gives away to relief as she audibly gives a sigh of relief, looking back over at her door for just a moment, waiting, before quickly walking over to the window and opening it up. "Hope you don't mind if you stay out here, dad would probably hear you if you come inside to... talk..." Liz's words slowly died out as she looked up at you, her eyes going wide as saucers as she saw you literally sticking to the wall with just your hand sand feet. "Holy smokes... I... wow okay, I wasn't imagining it when you finished climbing up the side of that building. You're literally sticking to a wall!" She said in a low voice, stunned and amazed, as you just smiled behind your mask.  
  
"Hey, wouldn't be much of a Spider-Man if I couldn't stick to walls, right?" You asked as you shifted around so that you were off to the side of her window, sticking with just your feet as you formed a weird sort of sitting position next to her, one hand lightly touching the building while your feet kept you pressed to the wall, your butt sitting on your heels all the while. If you were gonna be here a while this would be about as comfortable as you were gonna get.  
  
"No, I guess not." Liz admitted as she combed a hand through her hair, causing you to look over at the door. "Uh... I guess I kind of know your name now, Spider-Man, but I haven't really returned the favor. The name's Elizabeth Allen, friends call me Liz and... well, I guess people who save my life can call me Liz too. So, you know." Liz shrugged her shoulders as she chuckled. "Sorry, kind of not used to... you know. Talking to a real life superhero."  
  
"Hey, no sweat, I'm still getting used to the superhero dig myself so I understand you being weirded out, Liz." You sigh internally, glad you didn't have to keep second checking yourself to keep yourself from calling her Liz. Now you actually had an excuse to. "Anyway, so that's the deal huh? I stay out here so that Mr. Allen back there doesn't spooked by you talking to someone and you tell me what you know about why you were kidnapped? Sounds good to me."  
  
"Oh uh... it's actually not Mr. Allen." You blinked at that, tilting your head to the side as Liz shook her hands. "Divorce. Mom and dad split, mom got custody and so... well, Liz Allen."  
  
"Oh... uh... sorry about that. I didn't know. You don't-"  
  
"It's... fine. It's actually just a little... no, it's related to what's going on." Liz said, combing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Not sure if you'd know him or not, kind of hard to recognize because he doesn't really do interviews or sit down to talk a lot, but his name's... Toomes. Adrian Toomes. He's-"  
  
"Wait, Adrian Toomes is your dad? As in Adrian Toomes of Toomes Aerospace Engineering!? The guy who got his name signed onto the F-22 Toomes for his developments in twin-engine design and avionic technology?! That Adrian Toomes?!" Liz actually blinked at that, a bit taken aback by your sudden excitement before she nodded, looking amazed.  
  
"Y-Yeah, that's him! You've actually heard of my dad?"  
  
"Are you kidding? The guy's engineering feats in the 90s and 2000s basically gave rise to more efficient, faster and more capable air travel. The dude's a genius!" Holy cow, how did you not know that this guy was Liz's dad. Sure the last name thing threw you off but that was... wow!  
  
"Well, a 'genius', he can still be pretty clueless about somethings but... yeah, when it comes to flight my dad's pretty much one of the best there is... in fact, that's pretty much been the problem..."  
  
...  
  
Oh. Right, the matter at hand. You weren't here in order to geek out about her dad or about his place in the history of the Aerospace sciences. You were here to discuss her kidnapping.  
  
"You said that you were pretty sure that your dad's related to what's going on... is he..."  
  
"He's not the one at fault... it's just... God, it's so crazy and so... stupid and frustrating. I don't even know where to start. This past year has been such a mess... and everything was looking so good before it too. I just... God, I just don't know where you begin." You nod at that as Liz just sighed into her hands, clearly exhausted by the entire affair. Not that you could blame her if the most recent act in it had been her kidnapping.  
  
Maybe you could help her sort it out a bit.

"Well I mean... let's start at the beginning. You said things were going well before. How so?" You placed your arms on your knees, sitting up against the wall as you kept your butt on your heels. It was a surprisingly cozy position all told, though how long that'd stay true for would remain to be seen. Which, hey, bonus. Liz just heaved a sigh as she combed a hand through her hair.  
  
"God that seems like so long ago now. Still, it was true. My sixteenth birthday's coming up later this year, it finally seemed like I was going to be able to move in with dad for good and... God, what great timing too! All those years of hard work, all those years of effort, of running his company and inventing, it was finally gonna pay off massively for him!" You're a bit surprised at that, tilting your head to the side.  
  
"Pretty sure being credited with changing air travel and having your name stamped on a jet is already hard work paying off massively, or at least I'd think so." You commented idly as Liz just shook her head.  
  
"No, you don't get it! This was even bigger than anything my dad had ever done before! So big it'd put his name in the history books forever! No one would've ever forgotten him because he'd have changed flight forever!" Okay, admittedly, you were getting kind of curious. "For the past ten years my dad's been taking the grant money he's gotten off of his military contracts and been putting it into research and development on this new invention of his! He's put so much time and effort and money into it that... I dunno. Maybe that's what mom meant. Still, like, she didn't understand... I mean, I don't really understand it either."  
  
...  
  
"How can you be so excited about something you don't understand?" You arch a brow under your mask as Liz Allen rolled her eyes.  
  
"I mean, I understand what he says when he slowed it down to, like, normal person talk but the science behind it is just... man. I know there's smart kids at Midtown but I don't think any of them would get it either! That's just how cutting edge Glider Tech was going to be!"  
  
"Glider tech?" Liz nodded her head as she ran another hand through her hair.  
  
"Like I said, I really don't understand all the mumbo jumbo, technobabble my dad throws out, but when he talks about what it'll accomplish I get why it's been so important to him. Glider Tech is... well, you know how plane engines have those spinny things inside them right? The blades that spin around like propellers but they're not, like, those old time-y propellers?"  
  
"I'm vaguely aware." You comment, a little amused at the way Liz was putting it, as the young woman continued.  
  
"Well scrap that. Scrap 'all' of that. Scrap the rotors on helicopters, scrape the internal makeup of every single airplane engine, even scrape the fans on hovercrafts and the water and air pressure in those jetpacks people keep trying to make! Glider Tech pretty much renders all of that completely and totally obsolete!" ... That... was a bold claim. "Like I said I don't get the science of it but the way dad describes it is that Glider Tech is a propulsion system that doesn't rely on those kinds of machines. There's no blades to get cut on or engines to get gunked up, at least not like the twin-engines on most planes. There's an internal engine that feeds out into two, mobile ports that, upon activation, propel people at insane speeds! In any direction and from any takeoff speed! It's not even like the space shuttle where it's just this gout of fire that's propelling people. It's just... energy!"  
  
"That... that..." Takeoff from literally any speed or position, not needing to build around clunky blade or engine positions, pure propulsion that could get a plane up into the air and manage it with more mobile ports with an interior engine that wouldn't be as prone to failure as an outdoor airplane engine. Nothing to get caught in the blades of it or to gunk up the works and cause an accident. Just...  
  
This was something that could've literally changed _everything_ about flying! Airports no longer needing huge runways, planes being able to take off, fly, land and then load and unload passengers in a much more manageable way. Depending on what this 'Glider Tech' could run on it might even be more efficient!  
  
"That... would literally change everything about modern flight." Personalized. Jetpacks.  
  
Your nerd heart was singing loud and proud.  
  
"I know! It was going to put my dad in the books forever! People would be so proud of him, I'd have been so proud of him! He'd have had all the money he could've ever dreamed of, heck, more than it considering how rough he started out! It would've been great!"  
  
"Yeah totally! So what happened? What changed?! It sounds like your dad was pretty much on the way to revolutionizing air and space flight!? What changed?" You see Liz's enthusiasm slowly dipped as her smile dropped, a furrow to her brow as the young woman sneered lightly.  
  
"Not what happened, who happened." Liz crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall next to her window, causing you to arch to an eyebrow. "Norman Osborn happened."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Norman Osborn?" You arched an eyebrow. "As in the guy who runs the biggest medical research company in the world?" You had to admit, you were a bit fuzzy seeing how Osborn or Oscorp could be involved in this. They really didn't specialize in this field at all so it's not like they were in competition with Mr. Toomes, right? Liz scoffed slightly as she looked up at you.  
  
"I guess it makes since that you haven't heard. Oscorp's been looking to 'branch out' ever since Stark Industries closed down its weapon division. Unfortunately, they set their eyes on my dad and Glider Tech as their first... 'acquisition'." You leaned back as Liz seemed to be unpacking a lot of frustration, the young woman frazzling slightly in front of you. "Dad's not even sure how Norman found out about Glider Tech in the first place. The company's not publicly traded so it's not as if he's had to explain where money's been going in R&D and most of the people who help him run it who're in the know are close friends he's known for ages. Heck, maybe that's why Norman started off the way he did; Toomes Aerospace Engineering doesn't have stock so Norman couldn't just buy it out and no one who actually 'owns' part of my dad's company would sell it for anything... so the first they ever heard from Oscorp were lawyers."  
  
Hoo boy. That's not never a good sign.  
  
"Seemed like there wasn't a time of day where Oscorp weren't coming by to try and discuss a potential business deal with my dad. Heck, one of them even stopped by his apartment when I was over. They were offering these ludicrous amounts of money for Glider Tech, trying to get him to sell them his research and what prototypes he started with. Naturally my dad said no; the money's gonna be nice but for my dad... the research, the recognition of his hard work was what was important."  
  
"Well... in that case, he'd still get credit for the invention right? I mean, Oscorp's getting the product but-"  
  
"Osborn wasn't willing to acknowledge him as its inventor in the deal. If it went through, it'd be an 'Oscorp Advancement'. Supposed to help them draw in 'new talent' for their new divisions they're starting." You deflated ever so slightly at that.  
  
"Sounds... kind of skeevy." You said to which Liz just barked out a short laugh.  
  
"Oh trust me, if there's one word that describes the Osborns it's skeevy." Liz rubbed her arms at that, looking down to the street. "After thing... things just got kind of... scary. Kept getting scarier. My dad, his co-owners, his workers and I started noticing people following us. My dad and his co-owners were getting called at all hours of the day and night being implored to just think about the deal with Oscorp, to consider it. While that was going on... well... nothing really 'bad' happened per say. Not like at school when I was... you know... kidnapped. It was just little things. Things we wrote off at first but... well, when they kept happening..." Liz shivered. "Stuff kept going missing. At first we thought we misplaced it or something. Then when he'd come back home to his apartment he'd see stuff had been moved. The police could never find any actual evidence of tampering, no fingerprints, no sign of a break-in, no nothing... but combined with Osborn's lawyers and them harassing him and everyone else... well... it was kind of getting obvious what was happening.  
  
"Osborn was trying to scare my dad and his partners into making a deal. 'Workers are getting scared', 'I'm sure you'll feel better once you just accept'. They never outright threatened us or anyone else. It was all just them imploring, begging for a deal. Trying to get us to sign. Meanwhile it just seemed like the pressure kept building. Through it all though my dad said no; if he could just finish Glider Tech, if he could present it as his own and his company's invention, then Oscorp's deal would be meaningless. We'd be left alone!"  
  
"I... feel like there's a but..." You comment, feeling a bit tense yourself as Liz's brow furrowed, a mournful expression on her face.  
  
"One morning my dad, his co-owners and everyone came into work. When they got in there... it was gone. Everything related to Glider Tech was just gone. All files, gone, computers completely wiped of any trace of it, blueprints and plans they'd been working on for years, heck, even the prototype that they'd been working on to present as part of its reveal was just gone! Not a trace of it anywhere! Heck, even my dad's own personal computers were wiped clean of it! We knew Osborn stole it, that was the only explanation... but..." Liz shook her head. "We didn't have any proof that Glider Tech even existed at all. Even the patent my dad filed way back when for the name was gone... replaced by one filed by Oscorp.  
  
"As far as anyone in the government could tell Oscorp had Glider Tech on the back burner for years... so when my dad tried to file police reports... they went nowhere." Liz sneered as she banged her fist slightly against the wall. "Wouldn't you know it, as soon as Osborn got what he wanted the calls stopped, nobody was being followed anymore and nothing weird happened. What a lucky break, huh?"  
  
Okay.  
  
So.  
  
This was a big thing to drop on Oscorp. To accuse them of. A harassment campaign carried out quietly and subtly that eventually swapped over to an act of industrial sabotage where they stole everything related to this world shaking invention. It wasn't that you didn't believe Liz on the face of it, you could tell that she certainly believed that this was what was happening... but... well...  
  
"Then... I don't get it. If what you're saying is true, and that's a big 'if', how is this related to why you were kidnapped? It sounds like Osborn got what he wanted! If that's the case then wouldn't he just leave you all alone? What happened?"  
  
...  
  
Liz looked down to the side, an uncertain expression on her face.  
  
"... I know it's connected to my kidnapping because... well, you're wrong. That was just the story a few months ago. Recently... I don't know how. I really don't know how they did it... but... somehow...  
  
"Glider Tech, the prototype that my dad's company made... it's back with his company.."  
  
...  
  
Oh.  
  
That...  
  
Huh.

"They stole it back?" You asked, looking quite surprised, as Liz winced a bit.  
  
"I... I wish I could say they got it back legitimately somehow but... no, that's what it was. They stole it back. It's the only explanation. If dad got the prototype back legally somehow then he probably would've done something by now... but no matter how much I hear him and his coworkers talking they're just... not doing anything. If anything they're more on edge and nervous now than ever... or well, nervous. My dad's just on edge." Liz said, heaving a great sigh as she combed a hand through her hair.  
  
"So you think the kidnapping was about Osborn trying to get it the prototype back?" Liz nodded ever so slightly, though she didn't seem wholly sure herself.  
  
"It's what makes sense to me. If my dad... somehow..." You see Liz tugs ever so slightly at her dark hair at that as she looked off to the side, "... somehow got Glider Tech back, and he did so illegally when Oscorp would've been keeping such a tight grip on it, then... I dunno. It doesn't seem like it would be easy for him or his coworkers to do! If he did something like that then maybe Osborn figured that, hey, cutting out the middleman and making a trade of me for Glider Tech would get him to give it up." Liz sighs as she shook her head. "I know it's a big claim but it's the only thing that makes sense to me given everything that happened and that my dad's talked about." You nodded at that, rubbing your chin as your leaned back on your heels.  
  
Liz was right about one thing at least... if Adrian Toomes had gotten Glider Tech back illegally, then it wouldn't have been easy for someone like him to do. A bunch of engineers, scientists and blue collar workers secretly breaking into Oscorp in order to get what must be some seriously big tech out of the building without anyone noticing? That seemed really unlikely. Heck, if you even tried that you'd probably put on a huge show of it... something that a lot of people would see...  
  
No matter what.  
  
...  
  
Nah.  
  
No, no, come on. No way. As if one of these guys... as if they're hired out something like that or as if one of them would make something like that. Like, come on. Escalating from stealing tech to... full blown assault and widespread terror? Come on.  
  
...  
  
"When you say recently... how recently? Do you remember the exact date?" You asked, furrowing your brow as you leaned closer to the window's opening. It was silly, such a stupid little thought but... well, the more you thought about it the more the idea refused to leave your head. There was no way clearly but, hey, there was no harm in asking an easy question to debunk it, right?  
  
"... I don't know 'exactly'. I just know that... I definitely know my dad didn't have it a couple months ago. He was really on edge and frustrated and... just seemed so angry..." Liz rubbed her arm. "I started noticing that around October his mood improved and then... well, I caught him and his friends talking. About how they had Glider Tech back in hand! I was so happy for them and I thought it was all over... but my dad, his coworkers... they were really nervous. My dad still seemed so certain though. So sure that he could make this work." Liz shrugged as she rubbed her chin. "I think that was... I dunno... Mid-October?"  
  
...  
  
Okay. Okay. So a couple months ago was... before the assault. Then sometime after Liz found out they had it...  
  
Uh...  
  
No, come on.  
  
It couldn't be.  
  
They couldn't have...  
  
...  
  
Could they have?  
  
Adrian Toomes was the premier expert in Aeronautic Engineering. If anyone could've put together something like that... then from there it would've all just been a matter of giving it to the right person, a hired gun or maybe one of his coworkers, and then...  
  
You remembered.  
  
Those steel wings that flashed, bladed edges sharp.  
  
The iron claws that dented and bent steel handrails.  
  
[The roar of the engines on the wings](https://i0.wp.com/splashreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Spider-Man-Homecoming-Vulture-Concept-Art.jpg).  
  
... Okay.  
  
Just...  
  
Play it cool, Spider-Man.  
  
"This is ... okay..." You heaved a sigh as you held onto your head, looking down at Liz as she looked back up at your goggle covered eyes. "Do you remember that attack on Oscorp a while back, the one with that guy... the Vulture?" Liz seemed to pause for a moment before awkwardly nodding her head.  
  
"I... I do. Hard to forget it; Flash talked about it with me for a while after. I didn't end up going to Oscorp myself, for obvious reasons but... hearing all my friends were in harm's way like that was kind of scary, especially since I didn't know if Flash was okay until he called me after." You nodded at that as you kept going forward with your suspicion.  
  
"Well... you see, something I kind of realized just now is that his tech seems like something your father or his company could develop. I mean, they're the best in the business when it comes to Aeronautic Engineering. I don't want to say anything too direct... but, you know, the time frame fits..."  
  
"I... no. No, no. That's..." Liz shook her head; you could tell that you'd somewhat spooked the young woman, a slight pale look coming over her as she looked up at you. She seemed shaken but stood her ground as she took a breath. "Listen, my dad might be under a lot of pressure, his friends might be having it rough, but... there's no way. There's no way they would've escalated this to outright... I mean, Hell, you must've scene the attack on the news! If my dad and his company were really behind that and it ever got found out them... fuck, forget Osborn's manipulations of this situation, the Vulture attacked a lot of innocent people, including a lot of my friends and my boyfriend. People who were never involved."  
  
"I know, I know, I'm just saying-"  
  
"I get what you're saying but... no, as much pressure as my dad's under, he's smart. He's capable. There's no way he or his friends would do something like this or let it happen. There's just... no way." Liz seemed to hesitate a bit on that, causing you to arch an eyebrow. As you moved to continue you both heard a knock at the door, Liz immediately jumping out of her skin and you damn near doing the same as you quickly shimmied away from the window while Liz closed it.  
  
You stayed there, absolutely still, as you waited for whatever was going down. Just about a half minute later the window opened, your heart beating in your throat as you glanced over... only to be relieved again as Liz stuck her head out.  
  
"That was my dad. He's heading out to the company's building. His friends called him over, wouldn't say what for." Liz nervously combed a hand through her hair as she looked own. "Look, thanks for stopping by and thanks for saving me but that's all the information I have. I hope it helps at least... but for right now, maybe you should get a move on. My dad might spot you once he gets outside." You nodded at that, moving to address Liz again before the young woman closed her window once more. You sighed, shaking your head as you drooped a bit.  
  
"Happy to be of service." You said, to roughly no one, as you quickly fired out a line of Webbing to swing away from Liz Allen's building. It seemed like that last question really spooked her, really unsettled her... and the truth was it was hard to say whether it was because you'd just shocked her with it or because she might've suspected something. Like Liz was saying with Norman Osborn, her version of the story made sense based on what she knew... for you though, the idea that someone at Toomes company, or someone they hired, stole back Glider Tech also made the most sense.  
  
Given the tech in that suit you had to imagine Toomes would've been at least involved with designing it...  
  
So, a bit of corporate espionage gone awry as a freak in a giant flying Vulture costume got involved. That thing the Vulture stole that day, that he flew off with... it had to be Glider Tech. Given what Liz told you about it being returned to her dad, that's the only thing that made sense in all this.  
  
Still, as you watched from a distance as a lone vehicle pulled away from Liz's apartment building, driving off to a remote corner of Queens... you had to wonder just what the Hell your next move was going to be.  
  
And, realistically, how long it would be before something else happened.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

His work.  
  
That's what this all really came down to, when [he](https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2017/07/SPIDERMAN-HOMECOMING-keaton-cartalk-1024x504.jpg&w=1484) really thought about it. His work, his effort... and the work and effort he was putting into this mess to set it all back to how it was supposed to be. He lightly gripped the steering wheel of his car as he drove as fast as he could across town. His work. Years and years of research and effort, attempting to develop what would be the next great step in Aviation. It was set to be magnificent, his Magnum Opus. Glider Tech. That singular invention that would propel humanity forward into a new age of flight. Tony Stark, as much as people lauded that Goddamn billionaire for how clever he was, hadn't even gotten to this step. Videos of the Iron Man suit showed it; propulsion based out of a combustion cycle. 'Blasts' as some people referred to it coming out of his hands and feet.  
  
The energy source might not have been good old carbon-based fuels, it might've been that reactor that he'd spent ages working on before somehow finishing it _while a hostage of a terrorist organization..._ but his Iron Man suit had more in common with one of the jets he helped design or manufacture or, at the absolute limit, the Shuttle. Glider Tech was set to blow that rich asshole's tech out of the water, cement his own company's place as the foremost and forefront in Aviation. He'd been so careful too; he never went public, for fear that Stark would have one of his 'moments'. It had happened more than once; Tony Stark shows up at a tech expo to see the goods, to see what other people had poured their life's work, their best years, into. He'd take a few notes, walk off....  
  
And not three months later, Stark Industries would unveil its own version of the tech.  
  
 _Genius_ they call him.  
  
Jackass wouldn't have had the opportunity to go around ripping people's tech if his pop hadn't dropped that company in his lap. Not like Toomes. He'd had to work from the bottom up to get to where he was. To get the respect of the United States Military, to get a jet named after him, to have his own company's name be respected.  
  
He'd come so close too.  
  
The prototype was so close to finished.  
  
Soon he could unveil not just a design or a half-finished Alpha product for people to ogle at. He could present the real deal, the finished product, let people know what Glider Tech was. Let them know it was his.  
  
That he deserved the credit for pushing flight into the next age.  
  
That it was **his** work.  
  
Well... hah.  
  
Turned out he avoided one billionaire asshole and ended up walking into a piece of walking, talking dog shit.  
  
"Osborn..."  
  
The frustrated growl left him as he pulled up to his company's main building; a combination R&D and production line. What could he say, he liked to be close to all aspects of his work at all times. He'd gotten here by being hands on, by applying his own genius to it. He wouldn't let anyone forget that. The sight of a handful of police cars in front of the building, however, had been what drove Toomes to frustration. Not even ten minutes ago now he'd gotten a call; the police were back. Because of course they were back. Toomes muttered as he immediately jumped out of his car and made for the main building, pushing past the front doors and into the main production area...  
  
Sure enough.  
  
There they were.  
  
"Captain Stacy. So good of you to come back. Wasn't quite expecting such a late night visit though."  
  
Captain George Stacy. A cop with a head of fading blond hair and some light blue eyes. The man turned to him, his expression even, and if Toomes had been fool enough to buy into it, almost friendly as he saw Adrian approach.  
  
"Evening Mr. Toomes. Apologies, the courts... well, they work on their own time and I'm afraid we just got this in before closing time. Figured we'd get this over and done with so we can get back more important things." Stacy started digging around his jacket, Adrian watching him carefully as the man kept his eyes on him. "Liz doing alright? We haven't done a follow up yet, so-"  
  
"She's fine. No thanks to you." George actually winced at that, nodding as Toomes furrowed his brow. The police were here barking at his door, meanwhile his own daughter had to be saved by some costumed vigilante and... YouTube 'viral hit' as she'd referred to him.  
  
The Spider-Man.  
  
Seems that ridiculous names were all the rage these days, if that hack Jameson at the Bugle was any indication.  
  
"I do apologize for that. For what it's worth they'll be put away quite soon; it was pretty easy to stick them with a ransom charge given the circumstances and the evidence we were able to gather. In addition the Chief's approved a request I've made to increase police presence around Midtown for the foreseeable future. Make sure something like this doesn't happen again. I know it doesn't make up for the fact that it happened in the first place, but-"  
  
"But if you do your job, it'll do." Toomes responded, Stacy nodding slightly as, finally, he fished out what Toomes had been expecting; a search warrant. "So you actually went through with getting one of these..." Toomes muttered as Stacy furrowed his brow.  
  
"I'm afraid you didn't leave me much choice Mr. Toomes. You chased my men out of here back when this investigation initially started. Wouldn't let us look around without a warrant, so-"  
  
"I wouldn't let you look around because you're wasting your time." Toomes insisted, looking Stacy in the eye as he shaped him up. "I know you're here because Osborn pointed you my way Stacy, there's-"  
  
"That is true, Toomes... but we were here to investigate because, when asked about potential suspects or beneficiaries of the attack on his company, Mr. Osborn and many members of his building's staff remembered you storming into Oscorp and harassing numerous employees in an attempt to force a meeting with him. The fact that you'd filed a police report insisting some theft on Mr. Osborn's part-"  
  
"Not insisting, reporting a crime." Toomes interrupted Stacy, pressing a finger into the officer's chest. While Toomes was still not quite an old man, age was beginning to creep in. The wrinkles on his face were slowly becoming more pronounced and his fingers were becoming bonier. "Osborn stole my technology, Stacy. If you all had bothered-"  
  
"We did bother, Mr. Toomes. I'm not sure if it'd surprise you but we take accusations of corporate espionage seriously. We investigated your claims and even went to Oscorp to investigate. Everything checks out according to Mr. Osborn's version of the story, Adrian." Toomes grimaced a bit as Stacy brushed his finger off of his chest, not forcefully but pointedly. "In fact, Mr. Osborn was more than happy to let us investigate what we needed _without a search warrant._ So you'll understand if you pointedly not allowing us to do our job aroused some suspicions."  
  
Toomes rolled his eyes, agitated but... well, simply not caring anymore. "Fine, _Captain,_ you've got your search warrant so..." Toomes waved his hand dismissively, Stacy having narrowed his brow before nodding to the other men under his command to give a search of the area. His work. His effort. His continued work and effort. This was what this was all about... and for Toomes, he didn't have to care about the police anymore. Because thanks to that work and effort they wouldn't find anything.  
  
Not that there was nothing to be found. Of course there was; there was the prototype and... of course, the suit. However, as the police scrounged through his building, filed through his documents, searched every nook and cranny and made sure to investigate what they could they found nothing. Adrian had put the time in necessary, along with his workers and co-owners, to hide the evidence. Hide the Glider Tech prototype, hide the suit. Such that, hours later, when Stacy and his men rounded back to the front a genuinely perplexed but apologetic Captain Stacy greeted him.  
  
"Well Mr. Toomes, despite your behavior we haven't found a hair of anything stolen or pilfered. You're in the clear... which, does make me wonder why you bothered forcing us to get a warrant in the first place." Toomes couldn't tell the truth; that he needed the time while the wheels of Justice turned to hide the evidence... so he scoffed.  
  
"I know my rights, Captain. Besides, knowing that it was Osborn's word that sent you... well, let's just say I thought you'd 'find' something where nothing was." Toomes said, looking Captain Stacy straight in the eye. At that the police officer's apologetic expression dissolved, replaced by usual, even police demeanor.  
  
"Mr. Toomes, whatever you seem to think that Norman Osborn has done to you, don't mix up the facts. That we've investigated both of you at the behest of 'both of you'." Toomes just scowled as Stacy turned to the rest of his men. "Alright boys, that's it. We'll send in a report to the department in the morning. For now... think it's time we all signed out and got home. It's been a late night." The men all sighed in relief and nodded in ready agreement as the police filed out of Toomes' building, his workers and his friends all watching carefully as they all waited for the sirens and, once they flared up, for them to drive off into the far distance.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph that was too fucking close." One of the men practically collapsed back on a nearby worktable, head in his hands as Toomes just readjusted his jacket and went about heading over to a series of controls on a nearby wall. "I honestly fuckin' thought they were gonna find the Prototype for a second there. They were fuckin' inches away from it man."  
  
"Don't get your pants in a twist." Toomes muttered as he hit a switch, a rumbling on the ceiling leading to a life-sized model of the F-22 Toomes, the jet named for him, being slowly lowered from its place of glory hanging above the the production floor. "They were physically close to it... but without knowing how exactly that opens over there, they weren't ever gonna find it. Made sure of that." Indeed; this past month he'd been quite thankful that loud noise and the operation of tools and machinery weren't an uncommon thing for his building. That they'd manage to quickly piece together a place to store the Glider Tech Prototype in secret while this all blew over without getting caught had been a close run thing but, today, it had paid off.  
  
"Still, that was too close." One of the other workers said, scratching the back of his head. "If they'd have come a couple weeks earlier we would've been screwed. Telling you, this is all getting way too close for comfort." One of his friends rolled his eyes, turning to the man.  
  
"Ah come on, don't go whining-"  
  
"I'm serious man! Look, we were all fuckin' pissed when the police report fell through! We all know Osborn took Glider Tech! We all worked hard on that, that was our baby." Toomes sniffed a bit at that. 'We', 'our'. While Toomes was happy to share some of the credit with his associates, the men who'd helped him start this company, these workers... well, they wouldn't know the first thing about making Glider Tech without him. Without his blueprints, without 'his' hard work. Glider Tech was no more 'their' baby than Liz was to a babysitter.  
  
His work. His effort.  
  
His struggle.  
  
His credit.  
  
"But fuck man... fuuuuck! That hit was supposed to scare Osborn shitless! You all said it yourself! 'No way some rich asshole like Osborn's gonna see this coming. Once he knows how serious we are, he'll fold like a wet napkin.' So much for that, right?" The man ran a hand through his hair, pacing about as-  
  
"He's right. We underestimated Osborn's guts." Toomes eyes slowly swiveled around to one of his associated, one of the men who helped start this company. Don't tell him he was going yellow as well. "Instead... it's just been getting heavier. The police were one thing but I know, _I know,_ that I have people watching my every move. Osborn knows its us. Heck, that was half the plan. He's just waiting for one of us to slip up... or force us to slip up." Everyone glanced at Toomes and, immediately, he knew what was on all of their minds.  
  
Liz. Her kidnapping attempt.  
  
"Well it'll be worth it. Once Osborn gives up the game-"  
  
"Dude, Osborn's not giving up! We escalated this to a direct assault on that Goddamn eyesore of a tower and he punched back!" One of his other friends said as the F-22 replica finally reached roughly the ground level, hanging a scant seven or eight feet off the ground. "How much longer before he starts punching the rest of us? He hit Adrian right in the gut! You don't think he's going to look to put the screws on the rest of us to try to get one of us to give him what he wants?"  
  
...  
  
That... had been a concern of Toomes. While his will was set, Osborn would be forced to give Toomes _everything_ back and he would get the credit he deserved for his invention, his associates... well, a good number of them had stayed strong through the worst of it but, now, while victory was so close at hand, while it remained it their grasp... they were folding.  
  
Folding to a rich prick like Norman Osborn.  
  
Denying him what was rightfully his.  
  
"So what, we should've just let Osborn have it then? Just let him have Glider Tech?" One of his workers said as Toomes slowly, carefully approached the F-22 replica, Toomes going to work slowly removing a few nuts and bolts from the bottom of the plane while the others had at it.  
  
"You know what? Yes. It would've sucked but we still have this company. We still have the F-22 contracts. It would've been awful to see all that work and money go to nothing but we would've lived... Hell, if we'd taken Osborn deal from the beginning we'd be loaded! We could've bankrolled an entirely different project, or an upgrade to the F-22, and kept going that way! Instead we're sitting here on an effectively stolen bit of hardware and... that fucking suit!" The man pointed off to Toomes and the plan as he undid another bolt. "Now though. Now it's getting personal! We went after him in a big way and now he's doing something like... fuck. Liz is a good kid. She should've never been brought into this man. We-"  
  
The man stopped speaking as a bolt was tossed, hard, into the back of his head, causing him to flinch and bend forward as he grasped it. All eyes were on Toomes as he stood under the replica, his hands pulling out the bottom from it as he continued to look up into the dark space inside.  
  
"Personal. You think it's only just now getting personal? Osborn _made_ this personal the moment he decided that Glider Tech was his. Glider Tech is our-" my, "-hard work, it is our-" **my,** "-impact on the world. It will be what puts my name in the books, it'll be what we'll all be remembered for. That is our credit... my credit. Yet that cretin thinks just because he has a lot of money that he can take it." Toomes chuckled as he reached up into the space inside of the F-22 replica. "Boys, Osborn made this personal a long time ago. Our problem is that we didn't do him the same kindness. You're all talking about that attack like we escalated... truth is, we were being polite by only mucking up his company, destroying a few things, raising some Hell..."  
  
Though, in all fairness, if Toomes had come across Norman that day, he can't say whether or not he would've been inclined to grab that red head and take him for a quick flight. But he digressed.  
  
"Nah. We haven't been personal yet. We've made our point to Osborn; we've shown him why, for all his money, for all his legal bullshit, he should be afraid of us. That he should know better than to keep playing these games with us. Dumb bastard still hasn't gotten the message. So you know what I say?"  
  
Ah, there it was.  
  
Toomes grinned as he flipped a switch, metal grating against metal within the wings of the F-22 as a green light illuminated his face. He turned back to his men and offered them a [smile](https://i.redd.it/7rsboo338vsz.jpg).  
  
"We finally make this **very** personal for Osborn."


	24. 911

It had happened.  
  
The moment you'd been waiting nearly a month for had finally happened!  
  
You could barely even contain yourself! Even as you knew that you should've been slowing down, keeping your pace slow, you couldn't help but stay in a bit of a run. You just couldn't help yourself, you were so excited! You didn't even stop to knock on the door and wait to be let in, you just rushed inside the Lee Family home, gave a quick hello to Ned's mom, before you made your way up the stairs to Ned's room. You opened the door and, sure enough, there was your best friend sitting at the computer, a smile on his face.  
  
"You'd better not have been pulling my leg Ned, is it true?"  
  
"It's true man! You've been memed!" You pumped your fist as you closed the door behind you, excitedly dancing around a bit as Ned just laughed right alongside you. While it wasn't your biggest goal in becoming a superhero, you were psyched for the day when people would finally get around to just, you know, being excited enough by you to make memes about you. Aw man, even if the videos only got like a couple thousand hits you'd be so stoked that someone even bothered anyway!  
  
Being internet famous for being a superhero was just... agh! It was awesome!  
  
"Well come on man don't keep me waiting, load it up!" Ned just nodded as he turned around, pulling up a YouTube video he'd kept tabbed that entire time. You walked up behind your friend and rubbed your hands, feeling pretty giddy. When Ned had told you about this you'd been stuck between not believing him and being way too stoked to not believe him! Heck, you'd practically dropped everything you were doing in that moment in order to rush over to his house and see the meme magic for yourself! Sure you probably could've loaded it up on your laptop...  
  
Wait actually why didn't you do that?  
  
Ah, right, too excited to think straight. Still, that just made this even better; now you'd be watching your meme right next to your best friend! This was gonna be awesome!  
  
"Alright, here we go Pete!" You nod as the video loads up a bit before Ned hits play and soon enough its rolling. At first the video's silent, some people recording a video of... oh hey! That high speed chase you'd helped stopped! Yeah, this was your first really out there public act of vigilantism! Sure you'd stopped the bank robbery but no one had seen you; this was the first time you'd really been spotted by the public at large and got a video of yourself on the internet. It was like a lot of videos you'd watched of the event; various different camera angles from who knew how many YouTube videos stitched together to help make a story. At first you were wondering what the meme was gonna be... and then...  
  
As soon as you entered the scene, [the music started to play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0).  
  
Fuck.  
  
Yes!  
  
There you were, swinging through the air on your Webs, approaching the vehicle at speed as you swung down to ground level and fired off a line of Webbing into the exhaust pipe. The cuts were made almost, almost, in time with the music, making it obviously a little clunky but, hey, it was close enough for it to still be getting you pumped! You slapped Ned on the shoulder as the scene played out with you landing on the back of the car, the vehicle swerving around in order to try and shake you...  
  
Hey, wait a minute.  
  
The music was building up, the hype was building, the energy in the song was building but... but 'the thing' hadn't happened yet. It hadn't passed by. The music was building to its crescendo, the lyrics slowly going lower and lower as it prepared for one last burst. Still, it couldn't hit the peak before the... event happened, right? It couldn't. Unless...  
  
Oh no.  
  
Ooooh noooo.  
  
There it was. The hot dog stand. You almost scream at your video self, waving your hands slightly, but it's too late. Just as the car hits the hot dog stand-  
  
 _"[RULES OF NATURE!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0&feature=youtu.be&t=64)"  
_  
Just as the music should hit its huge uproar into pure rock...  
  
The umbrella hits your face, sending you tumbling off of the car as that familiar [harmonica verse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B63ynrBPxjQ) starts to play. You tumble backwards as you fall off the car, the umbrella skittering somewhere off screen. A sad emoji face was quickly shopped over your own, tracking as you fell back away from the car. A small part of you, despite how embarrassed you were, couldn't help but stifle a bit of laughter that threatened to force itself out of your throat, the sight of this... well... come on.  
  
The screen went black and white text in comic sans font, the monsters, appeared.  
 _  
"Liek if u cri evry tiem :*("  
_  
"Ah man... that smash cut. That was probably the best timed thing in the entire video." You glanced over at Ned, your friend still giving some airy laughs as he tried his best to contain himself, coughing into his fist as he looked over at you. "So what do you think man? First Spider-Man meme, yay or nay?"  
  
Well...

You let loose a sigh as you sheepishly scratch the back of your head, a slight smile on your face as you shrug. "You know what? I can't even be mad, that was pretty damn solid. Well memed." You see Ned give a short little laugh as he nods, turning around in his seat as he looked up at ya.  
  
"Good to know you have a good sense of humor about it Pete." Ned chuckled as he patted you on the shoulder. "If it helps it go down even easier, it's not like people don't think you were awesome or anything. Kind of the opposite, a lot of folks think you were pretty spectacular." Ned scrolled down to the comment section and while there were the prerequisite comments about it being 'fake' or any other such thing, a lot of people were pretty genuinely hyped up even after laughing at the contents of the short clip. "This one's going the most viral but there's a lot of random videos about the car chase following everything. Most of them don't total up to more than a few thousand hits though."  
  
Yeah, looking at the recommended videos on the side of the screen it was clear to see that; most of the recommended clips and compilations didn't total up to much more than 10,000 views on the more highly seen meme videos, with this one in particular going the most viral at around 40,000.  
  
"What about, like, videos of the actual incident? You know like news stuff and such?" Was it a bit of an ego trip to want to see how your initial impact on the public sphere was going? Was it maybe a little selfish to want to see if videos of you being a cool superhero were being passed around like popcorn and consumed by hundreds of thousands of people?  
  
The answer was yes but, in the comfort of Ned's room, you were okay with going through a little ego trip.  
  
"Well the various news sections are, ya know, kind of typical. Couple thousand for the local channels, tens of thousands for some of the bigger ones that went out of their way to cover this. By now the various little cellphone clips that made up the stitched together video have been kind of rendered obsolete thanks to them being compiled which..." With a quick click over to his bookmarks, because of course Ned bookmarked this for both of your convenience, you were brought to the page of the main compiled video. The clip by clip reconstruction of you chasing a car through Brooklyn and bringing it to a halt. Your acrobatics, your feats of speed and strength you... getting hit by the umbrella.  
  
Again.  
  
From two angles actually. Well at least that Piano Man meme video went with the better looking angle.  
  
Then however there was your recovery, getting back to the car and then subduing the criminals before running away from the police. A little look down and-  
  
"Wow, 250,000 hits." Your jaw kind of drops at that, Ned nodding as he starts scrolling through the comments.  
  
"Considering the size of NYC alone that's still pretty small but, man, you are definitely still some kind of viral hit. People would kill for those kinds of numbers on their first ever big internet appearance." No kidding! You grinned to yourself as you couldn't help but square up a little, a slightly cheeky grin on your face as you could practically feel your head swell up just a bit.  
  
"How do the comments look?" Ned shrugged his shoulders as he wheeled around.  
  
"Oh you know, it's YouTube comments. Surprisingly not too many people calling it 'fake' per say but there's a lot of people just shitposting and acting too cool, ya know how it is." Yeah, yeah you did. "Still, there is a theme with the most liked comments on the video; they say it's cool but, you know..." You look over to Ned, causing you to tilt your head to the side. Ned went about scrolling down to the comments section itself and, as usual, right at the top were the most liked comments on the video. You started glancing through them and, sure enough, Ned was right; a pretty consistent theme popped up a lot with the most well liked comments on it.  
  
 _"This is some real action movie stuff but man, like, the guy's really short. You think he's a kid or something?"  
  
"Do you think this guy's ever brained himself swinging around on that goopy white stuff before? I mean I'm no acrobat but that seems fucking nuts. Cool shit but jeez, guy's parents must be having heart attacks."  
  
">mfw da popo show up  
>mfw i say 'fuck da police' and run away  
  
like dude fuckin' booked it when the police showed up, like shit son, haha"  
  
"We're saying how cool this guy is but look at 3:24 and you'll hear a gunshot and see him flinch. Dude literally got fuckin' shot! Like holy shit, is he fucking alright?"  
_  
"It seems like when people stop being so stunned and awed by the fact that you're a superhero that most of them come around to these positions. It's how the news has been reporting on ya too, Pete." Ned said with a slight frown as he turned back to look up at you.  
  
Well that was just a bit of a buzz kill.

"Well I mean, this is hardly unexpected right?" You chuckle a bit as you lean forward, waving your hand toward the screen. "I mean, superheroes always have a hard time of it when they're first introduced, the public's always at least a little skeptical. So it's not like I'm off track or anything." You and Ned both share a light chuckle at this, your friend looking back at up at you as he shrugged.  
  
"Well hey, at least we're living up to the tropes, right?" You both laugh again as Ned shrugs. "I dunno, I guess it was always easy to laugh those off as just story beats but... well, seeing it play out... I mean..."  
  
"Yeah." You admit, scratching the back of your head. Seeing it all play out before you was a bit of a wake up call and a reminder of cold hard reality. It was so easy to see superheroes as the good guys, as invincible and in the right, when you were looking at events solely from their perspective. However, here and now, you were able to see this all from the perspective of a normal person witnessing this by looking at these comments and, well, by literally looking at yourself. Really, looking at what you pulled off on screen and the concerns of the people in the comments who actually cared... yeah. It made sense why people would look at folks like Batman or other vigilantes warily. You were breaking the law and putting yourself in a lot of danger, not to mention what could happen if you ever slipped up. There was a lot of tension to this and... well, good people, people who naturally believed in the law, wouldn't be supportive of a vigilante. It wasn't just a trope for cheap drama; these were people's lives and your life.  
  
Of course people would be worried...  
  
Still, that thought did put a smile on your face.  
  
"Still, at least it's mostly skepticism instead of outright hate. That has to be a good sign." You offered before snapping your fingers. "Besides, a lot of these people are even worried about my health of all things, so it's not even close to outright hate, it's folks caring about my well being. Can't be too upset about that, right?" Ned laughs as he nods his head, looking back up at you.  
  
"That's a good way of looking at it, I think. Though, do you think they'd be as cool if they knew you corrupted a poor innocent soul like myself to join in on your life of crime?" Ned rubbed his chin in a faux-intellectual manner as he gave a short 'hmmm' causing you to slap his shoulder lightly as the both of you broke down into giggling fits. "... So you want to see more memes about you?"  
  
"Is the Pope Catholic?" You both clapped hands as you immediately leaned back forward to look at the computer, Ned pulling up more and more meme videos on YouTube as you just sighed, relaxing and soaking it in. Sure, you were half meme and half basket case to people on the internet but, hey, better than nothing right? Besides, if you kept doing good work then maybe you could show people that you were fully capable of doing the superhero thing.  
  
That you weren't just some stupid kid in a mask going around and recklessly endangering himself...  
  
...  
  
Actually okay, more realistically; that you were that _and_ that you were a trustworthy superhero.  
  
...  
  
You could live with that. In the meanwhile-  
  
 _"They ask you how you are and you have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine and you just can't get into it-"  
_  
Man that umbrella was going to haunt you for the rest of your days, wasn't it?

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Alright, just needed a few more tweaks to the formula here and there and then you'd have enough to be able to go out for this week! Last week's stock had finally degraded so today was the day you needed to buckle down and make more Webbing. Just a little more work and-  
  
 ***Zzzrt*  
**  
...  
  
Oh, a text? That's weird; if it was Aunt May or Uncle Ben you'd figure they'd call for you... unless you hadn't heard them calling for you and now they were sending a text? Come on though, you weren't that distracted by work... okay maybe you were. Still, far more likely in your mind was that it was probably Ned shooting you over a quick text. So you walked over and checked the contact info and... oh. No it was none of those.  
  
It was Gwen.  
  
Well... that was a surprise. This was actually the first time either of you ended up calling or texting one and other, despite the fact that you'd shared contact info. You quickly opened up your messenger and took a look.  
  
 _"Hey there Peter, just checking in to see what homework we got assigned over Thanksgiving Break as part of Bio. I wrote it down in my notes but I think I might've lost them sometime before getting home, so I can't find what our assignment is. Mind sending me a text with the info?"  
_  
Oh, simple enough and you guessed that made enough sense. So you just nodded and sent a text back over.  
  
 _"Sure, no problem Gwen it's just the exercise problems in chapters 12-16 of our workbooks, he kept the busy work pretty light for us for Thanksgiving."_ Indeed your Bio professor had. While some other classes had been a bit demanding he'd actually kept the work a little bit lighter, all things considered. Granted it wasn't that much more demanding than what passed for normal homework, in your humble opinion, but then you were pretty good about parceling out small spaces of time to do busy work.  
  
 _"Thanks Peter, really appreciate it. No one else I know takes that class with me so I wanted to be sure."  
  
"You don't have to say thanks Gwen, it's no big deal." _Really it wasn't, it was the easiest thing for you to do in this situation. _"I mean, accidents happen right, not your fault that you lost your notes unless it is but then, like I said, accidents happen right?"_ You can't help but feel a little sheepish about that stream of consciousness you sent over to Gwen, figuring that'd be the end of the conversation. Still, you're a bit surprised when you see the '...' pop up at the bottom of the screen, signaling that Gwen's typing back.  
  
 _"lol, Yeah I guess. I think I might've misplaced them or something in all the hubbub from last week. That whole kidnapping thing got everyone really on edge, you know?"_ Oh that made sense. You'd heard from Ned that the school, once Flash reported into them about what had happened, immediately got all the students to move to a safer location in case the creeps with guns were still on campus. Between that rush to get to safety and the subsequent rush for everyone to see Liz and then get home after all the danger had passed, you weren't surprised that Gwen would've lost track of that.  
  
 _"Yeah, really nuts, I didn't even know what to think for a bit, it was pretty scary."_ It was... but the rest of that text was a bold-faced lie. You knew what to think and you knew what to do and, well, you did it and saved the day because of it. Still, best to just keep up appearances.  
  
 _"For real. Though I dunno if it was as scary as that whole biz with the Vulture over at Oscorp. Heard some **crazy** stuff from some people who went there. Plus... ugh, never mind."  
  
"What?" _You typed, tilting your head to the side with curiosity.  
  
 _"Pfft..."_ Wow she actually typed in the trill and the ellipses. _"Eh, I just don't want to bore you too much by talking about it. Heck at this point I'm kind of sick of hearing and talking about it; not sure if you know but my dad's a police officer so, man, it's almost every day hearing about stuff like this over the phone."_

 _"Oh well, I don't mind actually. I haven't heard a lot about it, and considering I was there for both incidents... I'm a bit curious. If that's alright with you of course."_ Yeah you really hadn't heard a lot about the incident ever since it happened. The most perspective you'd gotten on it came from Liz and, well, Liz was one source reporting form one potential side on all of this. Heck you couldn't even be 100% sure that what happened at Oscorp and Liz were actually connected. Having an ear into what the police were thinking about all of this would certainly be a boon to you figure out what to do about all of this.  
  
 _"Eh, it isn't even necessarily about the incident itself. It's more about just stuff that's been going on at home."_ Gwen texted back, causing you to shrug your shoulders.  
  
 _"Well I'm still all ears... or all eyeballs I guess, considering we're texting."_ You answered back, waiting for a moment for Gwen to respond. The screen is just blank for a bit, no sign of any activity or that Gwen was even typing away herself. Eventually though the '...' started appearing at the bottom as your music acquaintance starting compiling her message.  
  
 _"Basically it's been pretty heavy on the police priority for the past few weeks. Surprise surprise, when some psycho in a bird suit crashes one of the biggest buildings in NYC, people kind of get uncomfortable flashbacks."_ You wince at that as Gwen continued typing. _"My dad's basically been on the job 24/7 ever since. Sure he's home for a while and I'll see him for a few hours, maybe even have him actually sleep in his own bed, but he gets these calls all the time that ends up dragging him back out to work. Just a couple days ago he apparently got some warrant he'd been meaning to through and had to go out to investigate. He wasn't even back till, like, way early in the morning. Like, heard him come in at three or something."  
  
"Sounds rough. My aunt and uncle have pretty consistent 9 hour shifts at their jobs... though Aunt May does work after hours to actually run the business on her crafts shop." _Uncle Ben was pretty high up at the business he worked, being such a talented and prolific mechanic, but he didn't own the place himself, compared to Aunt May. Still, both of them were at least on pretty consistent shifts most weeks.  
  
 _"It can be; like I said he won't even be in on Thanksgiving because of patrols going around. Gotta make sure everything is in tip top shape for the parade and what not."_ You nodded at that as you tilted your head to the side.  
  
 _"You mentioned a warrant? Does this mean they have a suspect?"  
  
"Hah, pretty sure I shouldn't tell you anything about it Pete, no offense. Dad probably wouldn't be a huge fan of me spilling. Heck I only know anything about it because it's practically all he talks about while he's on the phone or having work friends over." _There's a pause before the next text is typed out. _"Then again on that note maybe mentioning the warrant wasn't such a smart idea but hey it's not like it's a surprise that they'd have warrants coming in and going out, right?"  
_  
Yeah, not much of a surprise but still, pretty interesting...

You know what? Maybe best to not try to pressure Gwen into giving up police procedure. As interested as you are in this, Heck it was the thing that ended up giving you these Spider Powers in the first place, you really didn't want to push Gwen into an uncomfortable spot; giving up stuff the police were keeping quiet and that you only knew because you were so close to a police captain wasn't great and, considering it was her father to boot, it probably would've been really insensitive and weird for you to push her on this. So you just shrugged and typed away at the screen, ready to kind of smooth this out.  
  
 _"It's reassuring that something is being done at least. Even if I can't hear details."_ Which, hey, was true. It was good to know that the police were at least trying to get things sorted out. Even with what Liz said, even with what suspicions whirled in your mind concerning her father's friends and Oscorp, it was a relief to know that the police were doing their best to look into the attack and, thus, all the drama surrounding it. You waited for Gwen's reply, which took a moment, before finally the message came through.  
  
 _"Yeah, though it's been a bit of a whirlwind. Dad's basically insisted on driving me to school personally every day and, according to him, the school's gonna be keeping some police on campus for the next few weeks just to be sure that nothing else happens. It really hasn't been our year, huh?"_ You chuckled at that; it was an understatement to be sure. Still... if you were being honest, considering you got Spider Powers out of all of this... well, you'd say you'd been having a pretty good year so far, despite what setbacks and emergencies popped up.  
  
Still, best not to share that at all.  
  
 _"Honestly my biggest fear is this kind of stuff becoming a trend with our school. If one more thing happens I'm pretty sure we're legally considered cursed_ _"  
  
"lol Trust me, you get used to it."  
_  
You blink slightly at that, tilting your head ever so slightly to the side as the '...' pops back up.  
  
 _"Anyway, thanks for telling me about the assignment Peter. I'll be hanging out with some family friends for Thanksgiving so my line'll be pretty dead. See ya around."  
  
"Same. See ya around, Gwen." _With that the conversation goes dark as you put your phone away, sighing a bit as you scratched the back of your head. As you did more Spider-Man stuff it'd probably be tempting to try and prod Gwen for details on what her dad, and therefore, the police were up to. Hopefully you'd have as much self-control then as you did now... barring an emergency.  
  
After all, Gwen was your music acquaintance! You really had a shot at making a whole, brand new friend! It would've sucked to accidentally chase that off...  
  
...  
  
Though, thinking about what Gwen texted about...  
  
"I should probably get to work on my homework." You shrugged as you walked over to your desk, quickly setting about tidying up what little homework you all had been sent home with over Thanksgiving.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx  
**  
"Woof... alright, hard part's done. Now let's open you up and see what I can work with..." You muttered to yourself as, after a lot of time spent meticulously and carefully unscrewing screws and undoing the various pins that held your Web Shooter together the outer shell of the mechanism gave way, revealing the interior workings for you to study. The Web Shooters had never been perfectly designed; they were pretty well thrown together from what materials you could afford to buy yourself and what you could scrap from the house and from local trash. Digging around for discarded metal and parts might not have been glamorous but it was probably the only reason you could afford to make these in the first place. That said, the limitations that left on the design was clear; because you were using pre-made parts for the most part, it left you needing to work around their design. In what few cases where you could order parts specifically for the Web Shooters... well, they were what was absolutely necessary, what you needed if this was going to work at all.  
  
And you know what? To your credit the Web Shooters worked pretty damn well! Sure it might've mostly been made up of what was little more than scrap but, damn it, it was scrap that was able to handle some air pressure well enough to fire out something with the viscosity of silly string, and a ways heavier, around thirty feet away at max range. That was no small feat to sneeze at, if you did dare say so yourself! Heck, you're not even sure how your superhero career would've gone so far if you didn't have the Web Shooters; they along with your Webbing basically gave you an all purpose bad guy catching gizmo and a travel around gizmo. Spider-Man would've been way different without these little inventions of your supporting him.  
  
Still though, the flaws in your initial design were readily apparent and causing you a lot of hassle in your work, that much was becoming clear.  
  
For starters, rate of fire; you were really feeling the pinch of not being able to fire these bad boys off more than once every several seconds. It slowed down the pace of your Web Swinging because you had to compensate for your Shooters, it made dealing with groups of crooks larger than two a hassle and securing bad guys took ages because of how long you had to wait in between each line of Webbing fired. Still that was only one bottleneck that you had to deal with. Then there was the fact that you could only fire off the stuff in lines which, hey, great for Web Swinging and great for initially tagging people or things that you wanted to throw around... not so great for actually securing people down. God only knew how much Webbing you'd wasted just spraying down people in strings of the stuff to make sure they'd stay.  
  
There was more and more that you'd noticed bit by bit over time but then there was the issue you were thinking of most of all, the one that got you to break open your Web Shooter and see what you could possibly do to adjust this situation; reloading. Now, the time it took to reload your cartridges was its own issue. You just meant how often you had to reload and how long it took for you to do so. You were already at least somewhat dealing with this problem by trying to make it so that your Webbing itself would have more supply in each cartridge but you knew without some serious upgrades that this would probably be a very, very short-term fix with not a lot of room to maneuver. Your bigger problem was just handling the size of the cartridges themselves and how much of them could fit into a clip on your Web Shooters.  
  
The fact was that you'd been caught needed to reload multiple times now, practically every time after you dealt with some crooks. You were lucky though; you were able to end fights with these criminals before you'd have to reload, allowing you to deal with the situation before it grew out of hand. Still, that was while the number of guys that were around you was small... and while they weren't all that tough. What if someone like the Vulture ended up getting into a fight with you? You weren't sure you could take him as easily as you took these common crooks. If you got caught needing to reload in the middle of a fight, any fight, no matter who it was with... well, you were kind of boned. So much of your take down strategy revolved around those Webs, around using them to secure people so that you didn't have to hurt them too badly.  
  
You wanted to fix this but... well... your options were limited. After all, even something as simple as some kind of system where, with a press of a button, you could swap between two cartridges would not only require reworking how cartridges slotted in and where but... well, obviously, battery power. For now, with you working without electricity you'd have to depend on good old fashioned muscle power to make whatever upgrade you'd think of work.  
  
Because, hey, you did still have ideas. Just because you were limited by the lack of electricity didn't mean you couldn't think of a couple good ideas at least.

In the end, you went with the revolving cylinder idea. While enlarging the actual cartridges was by far the simpler solution, that simplicity came with the downside of making your Web Shooters bulkier and taking up a lot of space in the design. While you weren't too concerned with keeping the thing looking sleek and modern out of vanity, it was nice for keeping it packed around in your backup or under your costume. For more practical concerns, taking up so much space with just the cartridge alone would've limited your options going forward as to how you could've added in other upgrades to these more simplistic Web Shooters. So you went for a slightly more complex solution but, hopefully, one that would give you even more options in the future to work off of; two cartridges in place of the machinery instead of just one would be pretty nifty once you came up with more things to fire out of your Web Shooters.  
  
But that was far off yet. For now, it'd just make it take longer before you'd actually have to spend a lot of time reloading your Web Shooters. Just a rotation away instead of fiddling around with empty and full cartridges would be pretty nice in the heat of the moment. So you got to work... but you got to work smart. There was no sense in completely demolishing your Web Shooters by trying to graft a new mechanism into them directly. You'd go modular, designing the new upgrade itself outside of the confines of the Web Shooter before adding it in. You made use of the full breadth of your Uncle's tools and, boy, did you need to. The design you were working on had a lot of things going into it; it needed to be able to fit in neatly around the cartridge holding and firing mechanisms of the Web Shooters without causing too much friction or being too hard to adjust, able to snap nicely in to place so that the cartridges wouldn't just slip away while also being maneuverable enough so that you 'could' rotate them at a moment's notice.  
  
To that end you ended up spending hours online looking over blueprints of the mechanisms that went into making revolvers, as that was about the closest thing you could think of when it came down to the basics. There was the big difference of you 'not' being able to make the revolving mechanism itself a solid hunk of metal, it had to fit around what was itself an empty cylinder meant to fit around your wrist, so you had to get pretty creative as far as the work around there. Still, even to that end you ended up looking into revolving cylinder shotguns and even some fancy looking engines that you managed to scout out online...  
  
God.  
  
If anyone ever saw your internet search history they'd probably think you were getting ready to plot some massive terror attack or something...  
  
...  
  
Yeah probably best to clear your internet history after all this work.  
  
...  
  
Maybe invest in a VPN sometime down the line too.  
  
Still, you tried your best not to think of that as you carefully worked at the bits of metal you had to work with, both from scavenging for replacement parts for the Web Shooters and from your initial invention attempts. You really couldn't hollow out cylinders, per say, instead you pretty much had to do what you did with your Web Shooters in the first place and use Uncle Ben's tools to kind of solder pieces together to make what you were looking for.  
  
Jeez Louise, if you ever needed to hollow out a solid chunk of metal for something, you'd be in some trouble. Uncle Ben had a lot of tools but he didn't exactly have, or really need, drill bits for metal.  
  
After hours of slowly but surely piecing the mechanisms of the cylinder together, you finally think you're onto something. You've had to make do with a hatch mechanism around the top and bottom, meant to not only snap the whole cylinder back together but also to snap it into the Web Shooter as... well, installation was next. Still, rotating the bay where you designed the cartridges to fit into... and yeah, cartridges. You smiled as you looked at the mechanism's bay, designed to fit two such of those bad boys in there rather than just the one. Anyway, rotating it around it look like it'd work... now you just had to take your Web Shooters apart and slip these in. You unscrewed some screwed and unfitted some latches, taking the device apart bit by bit in order to make way for the new revolver mechanism. You spend the next half hour sweating profusely as you insert each part in carefully, taking out other parts all together or just supplementing some of the original designs in the Web Shooters as you tried to fit this new upgrade into an original design that... well, to be honest, never really had this upgrade in mind.  
  
Still, you'd spent years fitting new drives, new ram cards and new parts into your clunky, nigh failing laptop, and you could do the same with your Web Shooters... you hoped. For now at least anyway; when you got around to being able to make whole new Web Shooters, you'd be able to just integrate this upgrade into the base design. You hoped.  
  
Still, as you carefully pried the old, single cartridge system out of the Web Shooter, you went about with the final step. Tongue wetting your lips as you heard your heartbeat in your ears you inserted one modular cartridge in, rotated the cylinder in the now almost complete Web Shooter, and then slotted in the second. Then you went about closing the systems. Latches here, screws there, a small sodder here and there to make it all complete.  
  
...  
  
You took a deep breath and picked up the Web Shooter, unlatching the back of it in order to fit it onto your wrist as always. You took a deep breath and...  
  
Fire one stream. Alright, that's one Webline working from one of the cartridges. Now, time for some rotatoes... hah.  
  
*Click Click*  
  
Alright, nothing broken yet.  
  
And...  
  
 ***fwip!*  
**  
You grinned, a massive smile on your face as the Webbing fired off without a sign of trouble! Yes! You'd done it! You quickly and repeatedly swapped back and forth between the two cartridges, firing off each in turn until you were satisfied with your preliminary testing that the upgrade had gone as planned! This was great news! You'd done it! You'd...  
  
Now only had to work in the other Web Shooter to get it up to this standard.  
  
Sighing, you still had a smile on your face as you got down to your work space and got back to work. No rest for superheroes, you guessed.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx  
**  
After all that work was done though, you pretty much had one thought on your mind; getting out into the town in order to do some good. You really didn't have much time to actually go out too far in your opinion; parkouring all the way to any of the other neighborhoods would take up precious time that your long hours of burnt daylight in the morning and afternoon didn't leave a lot of. So you decided that it was time to start giving back to your home neighborhood, Queens, again. After all, last time you hadn't even stomped any crooks working their way through your borough and that left you feeling kind of... well, just kind of unfulfilled. How crazy was it that you'd been stopping crime in so many places around New York City but you hadn't stopped a single one in your very own little corner of the world?  
  
Outrageous.  
  
So, work done, you slipped out of the house with an excuse about how you were heading out to a local library to study and then found a nice, quiet place on top of a building where no one could see you in order to change into your Spider-Man costume. Wall Crawling was way too convenient for stuff like this; just slip into an alley, slide your way up the side of a building and then get changed at the top of it, leaving your stuff there for you to come back to later. Better than leaving it in any locker, in your honest opinion. So, as you finished up changing, you quickly placed a call to Ned, got him ready for the patrol, and then jumped off the side of a building to make your way around town. Really, the prep work for patrols was getting easier and easier for both you and Ned to slip into as you got more and more time put into it. It was becoming more of a routine to set up for these patrols... though the patrols themselves were _never_ routine in your opinion.  
  
Sure, Queens might not have had the tall buildings of Manhattan or The Bronx and it might have been a bit more neighborhood-y than Brooklyn, but... well, it still gave you such a rush to run around on the rooftops, swinging and jumping and climbing and running your way across these buildings. It might not have been as thrill inducing as Web Swinging around the skyscrapers of Manhattan but, well, there was something just so thrilling and unbelievable about seeing the sights that you'd known for practically your entire life, the streets of your home neighborhood, the place you'd grown up, from this perspective. Looking down at people just doing their best to live their lives, some of whom even caught sight of you and pointed you out, as you swung and jumped around, parkouring your way through. It gave you a whole new perspective on Queens, both literally and figuratively... and you loved every second of it.  
  
If somebody told you there was something better, you probably wouldn't believe them.  
  
"Hey, watch what you're doing!"  
  
"Oh would you shut up! You're gonna let the whole neighborhood know we're out here. Just shut up and move the goods."  
  
...  
  
Okay, maybe you'd believe them if they said that one thing in particular was even better than parkouring around your neighborhood.  
  
Beatin' up bad guys around your neighborhood, of course.  
  
You quickly zipped over to the side of a nearby building with your Webbing a couple hours into your patrol, the afternoon sun lowering as a group of fellas dressed in some heavy winter clothes tried to innocuously load some stuff up into an unmarked van. Five dudes were moving back and forth between this rundown old building by Bowery Bay. Planes came and went from nearby LaGuardia Airport and the nearby wastewater treatment plant also gave this low thrum as it operated nearby. Heck, with your head so far in the clouds you'd almost missed these guys talking but, thankfully, these meatheads and their shouting drew you right in to what they were getting up to.  
  
You shot a message over to Ned, telling him you'd found something by the Bowery, before lightly climbing down the side of the wall you were sticking to in order to get a better look. The stuff they were loading up were some wooden boxes, stacking up in the back of the large van, alongside... hey, some rudimentary chemistry equipment. It didn't look more complicated than what you had back home, in fact your gear might've been more complicated than there's... but, well-  
  
"Seriously. This is our chance; the skull guy's apparently stopped blowing people's heads off. The sooner we move the hideout back into Manhattan, sooner our product can actually make some real money again."  
  
-for what it was becoming increasingly clear what these guys 'made', they really didn't need advanced equipment. You shook your head as you rubbed your gloved hands together; the van wasn't on and the five guys were mostly busy; four of them were going back and forth moving crates and simple lab equipment while one of them was keeping watch to make sure no one was spotting them out on the road. Too bad they didn't think to look above them though.  
  
Now, you needed a plan... and some quips. A plan and some quips would be good!

Alright...  
  
Now you hadn't had a real chance to do this before... but man, now that the opportunity was right in front of you, there was no way you weren't going to try and take advantage of it! You grinned as you, as quietly as you could, tried to scale down the side of the wall you were on. You... weren't 'too' successful at that, as a bit of brick chipped off the wall from you not deactivating your stick-em powers on your right hand quickly enough but, thankfully, the lookout didn't have the good sense to look up, two of the guys working on the van were just blissfully working away and the other two...  
  
...  
  
Had airpods on.  
  
Huh. Apple at it again.  
  
You shrugged, glad that your own meager efforts wouldn't be punished, as you quickly tightened your muscles in preparation for a jump. The parking lot was blocked off by a great metal fence with an open gate that the lookout was standing nearby. With a quick jump you manage to fling yourself the long distance across, landing just a ways from the lookout as he backed away in surprise at your sudden appearance.  
  
"Wha-" Before he can even finish that first sentence you're firing off your Web Shooters as quickly as possible; one strand goes for his mouth, another for his left foot and, with another squeeze of each hand's trigger, two strands end up impacting him again, one on each hand. As you pull him closer to you, rather easily with your super strength, you bring him up and live out the fantasy you'd been waiting to all this time.  
  
 **"I'm Batman."** Your voice is given as fake and gravely a tone as you can force it, imitating the full ridiculousness of Christian Bale's performance but, still, being more than enough to have this webbed up goon sweating before you twist both of you around and plant yourself just outside of the gate, sticking him to the metal fence surrounding the parking lot.  
  
"What... did you hear that?" One of the goons said from the inside, drawing the attention of his fellows as you quickly got to work sticking each Webline, and the Webbing around the guy's mouth, to the metal fence.  
  
"Yeah I did... where the fuck did Benny go. You two, did you... Oh come the fuck on, really?"  
  
The sound of yanking and cries of pain were heard.  
  
"Yo dude, chill the fuck out! Those things are expensive, so please be careful!"  
  
"You jackasses, Benny's just fuckin' gone and you didn't notice because you were listening to, what..." There's a pause as, presumably, the guy brings the airpods to his ears. "... Are you fuckin' serious?"  
  
"Chill out man, you don't see me judging you for listening to shit on the radio. Goddamn." One of the guys said, defensively, as you finished up your work. "Besides, Benny probably just went off to go take a piss or something. Why you freakin' out?"  
  
"Cause I heard something, that's why! So did Paul over there."  
  
...  
  
Well they probably weren't wrong at any rate. Benny here did look like he was about to piss himself. He struggled around, trying to free himself but, to no avail. Leaving him to just muffle and moan quietly around the long, thick strands of Webbing you'd pretty much gunked up his mouth with. You heard footsteps coming toward the area where you'd taken Benny out but, thankfully, it seemed they didn't have a great idea as to where exactly the two of you went.  
  
Perfect.  
  
Oh man, this was just way too perfect. You grinned as you sprung your legs down, ready for a big old hop. You jumped into the air, even doing a bit of a back flip before landing artfully on the very thin fencing, one foot in front of the other as you perfectly balanced right on it. Spider agility was just way too useful sometimes. Before anyone could even realize you were up there form how quietly, how expertly you'd managed to pull off that jump you immediately fired off two Weblines and stuck them to the two aware goons heads, causing them to yell in surprise as you targeted left with right and right with left.  
  
"Hey, you know if you guys wanted help with moving, you could've called me! After all-" You whipped your arms further away from their positions, pushing right further left and left further right, in such a way that the Weblines snapped tight and pulled the two goons along, taking them off their footing. Seeing them like this you then pulled **hard** , snapping your right arm back to the right and your left back to the left and dragging the goons along with the motions of your Webbing. They practically flew into each other head first, their skulls clanking together like an office room toy. One of them had managed to drag his feet but the other flew hard and fast into his partner in crime and, within a second, both of them dropped to the ground completely unconscious.  
  
"-I am pretty strong."  
  
"H-Hey, it's that YouTube creep! The spider guy!"  
  
"Please, I prefer Spider-Man, thank you very much. YouTube creep is fine though." You quipped back as the two goons pulled out a pair of glocks they'd had stashed in their thick winter jackets.  
  
"Hope you prefer lead too, creep!" With that both goons fired off their pistols, taking aim at you while doing so. You didn't even need to dodge out of the way of one of the bullets, which ended up being off by just a hair on its own. A quick duck and you dodged out of the way of the other guy's shot though, leaving them gawking at you as you grinned behind your ski mask.  
  
"Man whatever you guys are delivering, it sure isn't fresh humor." You snarked as you fired off both Web Shooters again. While one line did see one of the goon squad duck out of the way, the other easily snagged the other guy's gun and took it from him, leaving him weaponless. "Speaking of, just what are you guys moving around anyway?" The two goons look at you and, as you dodge out of the way of another shot, they both go for the van's doors. "Come on guys, I'm hip, I'm cool!" With two more shots you grab up the goon on the driver's side, pulling him away and to the fence. "I'm not a narc, you can trust me to not tell anyone about this! Scout's honor!" As you stick the two Weblines effectively chaining the guy's hands to the fence, you quickly jump out of the way of another attack, the last goon moving back around to the driver's side door while taking a potshot at you.  
  
You have to admit, there's something very cathartic about slowly but surely landing Weblines on what was obviously done kind of drug dealer, disarming him and then slowly but surely Webbing him up as you dragged him back your way. It was even more cathartic when you jumped down and proceeded to just hose these guys all in Webbing, taking a moment to manually switch your cartridges with the revolver mechanism, before finishing up.  
  
Yep, today was a **good** day. You took a breath, content that you'd managed to thoroughly Web these guys down, before going to the back of the van. Sure enough, lifting up one of the lids to the boxes you find that you suspicions of what 'product' these guys were moving was spot on; dozens of thick, densely packed bags of a fine, white powder. These probably filled every single box in this van to the brim, with the chemistry sets and other tools packed in to make more at wherever they would be moving.  
  
Yeesh. This was probably the closest you'd ever been to cocaine before. Kind of spooky, if you were being honest; you always heard about the stuff and was warned off it by not only teachers at school but your aunt and uncle... so being next to this stuff just kind of gave you the chills. It wasn't even just the powder, as you more closely examined the chemistry sets. A white film, residue from their production, stuck to the various beakers, bottles and tubes which made their purpose all too evident. Like you'd thought, it was all pretty basic stuff but, well, you didn't need complex tools to make drugs, unfortunately.  
  
Which did leave you with one question; obviously you were calling the police but, well, as much as the police needed this for evidence, some of these beakers, while used, were certainly fresher than some of the beakers you were using for your lab back home. Same for a lot of this equipment.  
  
You'd... really have to scrub it down, like really _really_ have to scrub it down, but... well, it would be free replacements for some of your older lab equipment.  
  
Though you really can't help but shudder at the very idea of it.

You sigh as you shake your head and close the door. No, none of that. You weren't going to tamper with potential evidence at a crime scene; not only would that make the police's job harder to do but it wouldn't make you look any better to them... especially if your tampering involved stealing some of that evidence.  
  
Which you would've felt gross about to begin with; dragging equipment stained with cocaine residue into Aunt May and Uncle Ben's home had a certain level of discomfort for you.  
  
So you turned to the other goons and quickly ran over to them; while you wouldn't be able to take anything from the car, or them, you could just quickly search through their phones in order to try and see if one was unlocked and if you could call the police. Sure, Ned usually handled this but, hey, the opportunity to keep Ned's phone number out of this seemed like a good one to take! All you had to do was search through these guys for one of their phones; shouldn't be too hard, right?  
  
Well, it wasn't of course; after all you were just quickly pawing through their pockets for their phones, doing your best to adjust your Webbing without breaking it in order to search through all of their pockets. Still, it was taking you a few minutes to get through them; searching through their pockets, pants and jackets, randomly hoping to find their phones while also working against the Webbing you'd layered on was eating up a good deal of your time. A few minutes or so later you're digging through one of the pockets of goon number four and... aha! You pulled out a phone and quickly began inspecting it, smiling under your mask as you saw what condition it was in. Not broken like one of them were and... slide your gloved thumb...  
  
Dammit this was awkward to do with gloves...  
  
There! Not password protected either! Now to just, press some... buttons...  
  
Now, you weren't stupid enough to take off your gloves.  
  
But you were sorely tempted to. Pain in the ass...  
  
 _"911 what's your emergency?"  
_  
There we go, finally!  
  
"Well hey there. Just your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man here calling in to report that I've busted in some no good varmints down here in Queens-"  
  
 _"What, Spider-Man?"_ You winced a bit at the surprise on the other end of the line; it wasn't like she wasn't sure who you were, not that kind of surprise. More like she hadn't expected you to call in like this.  
  
"Yep, it's me, Spider-Man! I'm down here by the Bowery Bay Wastewater treatment plant, in a little warehouse-type spot a ways down 14th Avenue. You'll definitely be able to find these guys when you come on down, I've got one of them Webbed up on the outside of the fence. Just send one of the boys down and I'm sure you'll find them. Now, then, I've got to get going so-"  
  
 _"Wait, no, stay right where you are and wait for the police to come and apprehend you, you're wanted on charges of vigilantism, if you run-"_  
  
"I know, I know, resisting arrest, running from the police, I getcha. You all have to do your job... but sadly I'm not in much of a mood to pulled into the back of a squad car sooo... bye!"  
  
 _"Hold o-"_  
  
Before the operator can even finish her sentence you turn off the guy's phone and drop it on top of him, firing off a Webline in order to zip your way back into the rooftops of Queens and make a 'mad' dash away from the Bowery. You laugh as you pull out your own cell phone and call Ned; you'll probably be needing his live feed of the police to dodge what streets they'll be approaching from.  
  
Another day, another solid bit of work by the Spider-Man.


	25. Floats, Flying and 'Fwip'ing

The sun wasn't even up when you were. A pretty rare occurrence for you before you got the Spider Bite but one that was very much necessary today... also, not as if this was all that hard to accomplish. Heck, it was six o'clock and the sun wouldn't even be up for another hour yet; just the matter of fact of living so far north during the winter, you guessed. It wasn't only going to get worse too; it wasn't even the solstice yet, after all. As you swung around your training area, firing out streams of Webbing as part of your training for the day, you couldn't help but shiver; today was a cold one too. Wasn't supposed to be any snow but man, you were chilled right out to the bone. It'd get warmer as the day went on but... well, judging by how cold it was in the early morning, not by much.  
  
Winter was pretty much here and investing in some thermals might not be a bad idea; days were generally gonna be colder than not, after all.  
  
Still, that might've begged the question for anyone seeing you do this; why the heck was Peter Parker out before the sun even cracked the horizon slinging Webs and doing his best to train when he had a warm bed and an even warmer shower waiting for him at home? Well a couple reasons; the first was just for the sake of it. While you were pretty much a crack shot when it came to anyone within close range of you, the further off those shots got the harder they'd get to land. You'd have to account for a lot of things too, especially if a target was moving fast which, hey, was a distinct possibility going forward. Still, this wouldn't preclude you coming out here later today; you could've waited till the afternoon when the sun was out and it would've been at least warmer than it was right now. So what gives?  
  
Well...  
  
Today was a big day at the Parker Household; Thanksgiving. It was Aunt May's favorite holiday and man did the woman love to show it; not only would there be a big feast for the entire family but pretty much the entire bloc and, heck, the entire neighborhood would be by at one point or another to take a gander at what May Parker cracked up on the stove to hang out. Aunt May and Uncle Ben were active members in the community after all and they knew pretty much everyone to one degree or another. You couldn't count the number of times folks would stop you while you were out and about to ask after 'Ben and May Parker' to see how they were doing and to send their best regards. Recently that even included a trend of promising to be by for Thanksgiving this year. May would set up the food and talk with her friends from around the neighborhood, Ben would sit down with a lot of his pals and other guys and watch the football game and, interchangeably, the channel would inevitably get switched between the game and the Macy's Day Parade depending on what was on commercial.  
  
Apparently no New York team was playing today; no Buffalo Bills, no Jets and no Giants. The other teams were...  
  
Oh who were you kidding, you only knew those three team names because Uncle Ben watched them. You had no idea who was playing today... even if maybe Uncle Ben had mentioned it at some point in time. What could you say; sports weren't really your thing. You only really had it in you to care about the teams that Uncle Ben seriously rooted for. Everything else might as well have been white noise to you.  
  
So yeah, for you, the highlight of TV today was probably gonna be the Macy's Parade. Goku was finally gonna be a balloon in the parade, after all these years! It was hype... even if it was the worst form of his. Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan... Blue. If you weren't so sure that Toriyama himself probably came up with that word salad of a name, you would've bet that whoever did would've been fired. Still at least he was finally in the parade! You couldn't be too down on it for long without getting hype again.  
  
...  
  
I mean come on, why not call the base form Saiyan God and then call this one Super Saiyan God?! It's so basic! Why-  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
After an indeterminate amount of time you spent mindlessly whipping webs about while smashing concrete into more concrete while having your internal nerd rant, you took a deep breath of cold air and shivered. Anyway, point was that today was a big day for your family and, to be frank, you doubted you'd have enough time in the afternoon and evening to go out training. Hell, you weren't even sure you were going to be awake; May's Thanksgiving Dinners were legendary for the food comas they'd knock you into. Last year you had a belly stuffed full of dinner, went upstairs to your room at six in the evening, passed out on your bed and then woke up at four o'clock in the morning the next day!  
  
So yeah, if you were gonna get any training done today, you were getting it done before anyone showed up at the house and before Thanksgiving. So here you were, working away even as the sun started to rise...  
  
...  
  
Holy crap were you nerding out to yourself for that long?  
  
Guess you were... well, another half hour or so of training and it'd probably be a good time to get home. Heck, you could probably even sneak in another hour of sleep after you took a shower just to rest up after training.  
  
Because right now a hot shower and a warm bed sounded really, really nice.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

...  
  
Well when you said that May made Thanksgiving Day at the Parker's an event, you weren't kidding.  
  
After waking up and showering, again, after your nap you spent the interceding time between the arrival of the guests and when you got ready helping May and Ben set up. They didn't give you many tasks or particularly hard ones, not wanting to stress your asthma to any degree, but still you had helped them set up the tables where Aunt May's feast would be laid out, set up some snack bowls around the couch where Uncle Ben and others would be alternatively watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade or a football game and then, while Ben handled some of the other furniture moving to make sure everyone would have space, you helped Aunt May clean the kitchen up. She didn't want people to come and see her kitchen in such a mess after cooking all that food after all.  
  
Which, you know, most people would've accepted as expected and moved on. That's just what made Aunt May a great host and why people loved to come over; she usually always went that extra step.  
  
Then, before the first game of the day or the parade proper started, people start flooding in. You used that word purposefully too; flooding in. Because it was almost a torrent of people coming to the house. Every year it was the same but every year you continued to be surprised at not only the number of people stopping by, which was always high, but by the fact that it seemed like even more people were coming by than last year, or the year before that and so on. The sound of boots and heels and regular old shoes hitting the floor as people came in vigorously shaking Uncle Ben's hand or hugging Aunt May, always left a deep impression on you as to how much Ben and May impacted the neighborhood and just how many friends they had.  
  
As far as you went... well you'd get both. Overly enthusiastic hugs from the older women, respectful, tight gripped handshakes from the older men and the awkward teenage awkwardness from your peers who were brought along to hang out for the morning/early afternoon before retiring for their own Thanksgiving Dinners. It ended up just spreading all throughout the first floor of the house, as the only time people went upstairs was to use one of the extra bathrooms. Just in case though you made sure to stash your costume in an especially tucked away corner of your room where, hopefully, no one would bother to check it. Heck, the only people who would bother to search up there were probably real little kids and people who were specifically out to search for something in your room.  
  
Which there were plenty of the former of but not so much the latter, so you'd just have to keep your eyes peeled on the ankle-biters to make sure they didn't go running off. Still, aside from them, it was a real spectacle to see so many people that you were vaguely familiar with. Plenty of Aunt May's frequent costomers were stopping by to sit and have tea with Aunt May while also eating some of her delicious desserts, guys from the workshop Uncle Ben worked at were coming by to watch the game and have a good time with their fellow mechanic, though Aunt May insisted that, with so many children in the house, that none of them were allowed to have any beer or alcohol.  
  
Some of the dudes would grumble but Uncle Ben would put his foot down as well; even if Aunt May didn't feel that way, Uncle Ben agreed with her. Heck, in all your years living here with your Aunt and Uncle, the only time you saw alcohol in the house was when you first started living here after your parents died and the occasional bottle of wine for special occasions, especially Valentine's Day. Beyond that though there were more specific faces that you definitely recognized; Anna Watson was here with her husband, John Watson, the two of them strolling in and of course energetically and happily greeting Aunt May and Uncle Ben. John, like his wife Anna, was a bit on the larger side, a big ball of a man who jiggled and vibrated with each great gout of laughter he gave out. Jolly was perhaps the only way to reasonably describe the man, his brown hair having gone sandy grey in all these years and wrinkles having set in on his cheeks. While it was a secret to you growing up, John here had often played the roll of 'Santa Claus' whenever you'd get a visit from him on Christmas.  
  
Which was all kinds of disappointing when you initially figured out that Santa wasn't real but, well, lead you to appreciate the effort that Mr. Watson here went through along with his wife, May and Ben. Though that appreciation was tempered by the fact that John was a bit of a pushover though, and was an eagerly and readily agreeable person. According to Anna it hadn't even been a hard discussion to convince him to take her last name when they got married.  
  
Then there was... oh... well.  
  
Uh.  
  
Hmmm.  
  
The Thompsons. Flash, his mother, his father and his younger brother. Flash, of course, had his arms folded and looked pretty peeved, quietly groaning and complaining to his mother as she practically dragged him in. His mother, Rosie Thompson... well, how to describe Rosie? The woman was fucking iron willed and bull stubborn. Now that wasn't to say she wasn't nice; on the contrary, Rosie always loved seeing you and talked about how you and Flash used to hang out all the time. She was a sweetheart when you had her in a good mood and you hadn't done anything to really get under her skin. However, her two sons often did do stuff to get under her skin and, boy howdy, did Rosie live up to the poster she was named after. She a woman of her size compared to her oldest son, she could manhandle the guy like no tomorrow. It seemed that Flash had inherited her own stubborn nature though as, from what you could see, he always seemed to groan and be utterly restless when it came to his mother's wishes. Francis Thompson, on the other hand, just seemed content to play around on his 3DS, just going along with his mother and giggling at his older brother's misfortune.  
  
Harrison Thompson was a member of the NYPD... a fact that lead you to feel inexplicably nervous considering the double life you were now leading. He seemed like a nice enough guy, upstanding and honest from how Ben and May talked about him and his work in the NYPD, though he always gave off the impression of being constantly stressed and on edge to you. You watched as Rosie harangued Flash a bit, telling him to behave, before Flash glanced around the room and found you...  
  
Okay, time to go get some food while the getting was good. Not that there was any danger of it running out with how much May made, but you did like the idea of putting some space between you and Flash while he was in the middle of getting an earful from his mom.  
  
Still, with so many people here, you did have an opportunity to meet and greet with a lot of people all things considered. Maybe you should take advantage of that?

"Peter! Oh what are you standing around for silly, come over here and have some pumpkin pie!"  
  
...  
  
......  
  
You know what, pumpkin pie really did sound delicious right about now. You smiled as you quickly walked over to Aunt May's table where a small gaggle of her friends or close acquaintances had gathered around. You smiled as you waved; most of the women at the table were a lot older than you, some as grey as Aunt May. The few who weren't quite as old as your aunt were definitely in their late twenties and early thirties. Now, this tended to mean one thing, especially when lanky, long and kind of awkward you ended up coming around.  
  
"Oh my May, you didn't tell us that Peter was growing up into such a little man. Look at him! I mean, last time I saw you, ya were just this cute little thing and now look at you! Mr. High School right here! Where has the time gone, Petey?" One of the older women chuckled as they spoke, causing you to internally sigh as you resisted the urge to roll your eyes. Yeah... old ladies picking on you. It happened a lot with Aunt May's friends and, honestly, while Anna Watson had gone a long way to getting you relatively over the fact that women older than you would pick and tease and giggle about you, especially with Aunt May around, it didn't stop it from being awkward. Especially when it was an in stereo with a whole bunch of Aunt May's friends around to confer and gossip among themselves.  
  
"Oh dear, you're telling me! I've been here this entire time and even I don't know how my little man grew up so fast."  
  
_Especially_ when Aunt May got in on it. Somehow having your own flesh and blood be in on this just made it all the more embarrassing, causing you to glance off to the side with a slight blush.  
  
"Oh come on ladies, you're making the little guy uncomfortable." You were snapped out of your embarrassment when you realized that one of the voices speaking came from the only dude at the table; an old man around May and Ben's age who was sat with this group. You had to admit, the sight confused you even if you, on some level saw it on the approach.  
  
"Thanks." The older man gave a small smile and waved you off.  
  
"No problem, kid, consider it me payin' you forward." You... felt slightly confused at that, but nodded; it was a nice enough gesture at least. The women at the table rolled their eyes at that, chuckling as May pulled out a seat for you to sit at while preparing some pumpkin pie.  
  
"Now Peter, let me introduce you; these are some old friends that Ben and I knew back when we were living in an old apartment complex in the Bronx."  
  
"Eh, I feel like it was more of a boarding house." One of the older women said, shrugging her shoulders as May shrugged.  
  
"Well I don't know the specific term myself... I suppose either works though." You blinked at the little bit of chit chat that fired off before May shook her head and got back on track. "At any rate, that there is Harriet, she was out next door neighbor."  
  
"Charmed kid, your Aunt talks nonstop about you so I feel like I already know ya pretty well." You blushed at that as you awkwardly scratched at the back of your head, a reaction that earned more than a few coos from the rest of the table.  
  
"The gentleman who helped you out Peter is Ernie; he was actually in Ben's regiment during the Persian Gulf War." Oh! That was a surprise, looking at the older gentleman as he gave ya a wink.  
  
"Like I said kid, just payin' it forward. Your Uncle was a Hell of a guy." You nodded at that... but... wait then-  
  
"Why aren't you over with Uncle Ben watching the game then?" You asked as Ernie just scoffed.  
  
"You kiddin' me kid? Miss out on getting first dibs on May's deserts? I'll miss a little football if it means stuffin' my face full of some of your Aunt's cooking. Stuff's to die for." Aunt May shook her head as Ernie cracked up laughing, slapping his thigh as May furrowed her brow at him.  
  
"Ernie, you know what your wife would say about your blood sugar. Don't joke about something like that."  
  
"Ah, my blood sugar's fine May. I can afford to cheat on Thanksgiving of all days... sides, you aren't exactly stopping me now are ya, ya little enabler?" The entire table broke out into a fit of laughter as May's face went a bit red, your Aunt coughing into her fist awkwardly.  
  
"A-Anyway, this is Jill, she lived just next to the elevator so we'd usually run into her coming to and from the building."  
  
"Good dodge there May, totally inconspicuous." Jill commented, a wry grin on the slightly younger woman's face as May just... haha, pouted. Your Aunt May honestly pouted for a second, getting the entire table to laugh, including yourself. It was just a rare sight to see.  
  
"Oh hush now." Aunt May finished off the introductions with a smile as she pointed to the youngest woman at the table, which still put her at her late twenties. "This here is Billie. Usually her uncle Willie stops by but, well, he's taken a bit ill today."  
  
"Yeah; uncle Bill got stuck delivering letters through yesterday's weather, ended up catching a bit of a head cold." The redhead said as she rolled her eyes, before tapping her finger on a wrapped up plate of desert. "Still insisted that I had to come in order to get some of this though. Swear, on Thanksgiving that man's got a one-track mind." The table nodded in agreement at that, causing you to smile as you looked all around.  
  
"Man I'm just... you know, kind of surprised that you all are here. According to Aunt May and Uncle Ben they moved out a while ago. Kind of crazy that you all are still so friendly." The group gathered at the table nodded, though Jill just shrugged.  
  
"We all did kid, but that doesn't mean that we could forget a pair of folks like your Aunt and Uncle." May smiled warmly as she waved her friend of, though she couldn't fully commit to her humility before another joined in.  
  
"No kidding; you should've seen them kid, they were practically everywhere and talking to everyone. Friendliest people I've ever met. Heck, I don't exactly know many people from the old boarding house that still invite us to their Thanksgiving Dinners." Harriet commented as May smiled warmly.  
  
"Well dear, you're all our friends. Of course we're going to invite you."  
  
"That there son?" Ernie said, lifting up a spoonful of pumpkin pie he'd scooped up to gesture to Aunt May. "Is why we're still coming here." You nodded at that, coming to a bit more of an understanding of just why you and your family were received so warmly by so many people. Before the conversation could continue, a call from the couch rang out over the din of the crowd.  
  
"May! The game's on a halftime commercial break! The parade's probably really rolling down now so you might want to run over to watch some!" Uncle Ben's voice managed to break through, causing your aunt to excitedly clap her hands as she grinned.  
  
"Oh good! Come on then, bring your desert everyone, let's watch some of the parade! Oh I do hope that they're just as darling this year." You were ushered from your spot at the table, along with the rest of Aunt May's particular crew, as you desperately grabbed at the pumpkin pie you hadn't even managed to take a bite of yet. A flurry of motion later and you were deposited just behind the couch, Uncle Ben turning to look at the new arrivals just as the channel was being changed.  
  
"Oh ho! Hey there kiddo. See you tried to get some desert there. Get a bit caught up there?" You chuckled at that as you looked back at Aunt May and her friends, shrugging as you turned back to give your Uncle a bit of a smile.  
  
"Eh, Aunt May invited me over to introduce myself so, you know, figured it'd be a good time. Want to actually mix in a bit with Thanksgiving this year you know, instead of..." Well, instead of just kind of awkwardly sitting back and just having some food.  
  
"Oh Peter, you didn't have to if you didn't want to." Aunt May commented as the channel finally set in, showing the ongoing parade as it passed through the street. It was at a marching band at the time. Some place called Syracuse High School.  
  
"Well I did want to... so... you know..." You really didn't know how to follow that up as Uncle Ben just laughed.  
  
"Decided to branch out a bit eh Peter? Well I'm happy to hear it." Your Uncle slapped you on the shoulder a bit, causing you to grin at his own antics as he waved around. "Here, in that case, let me introduce you to a few friends of mine from work. That over there's William, but most of us just call him Bill. The man's a wiz when it comes to wiring and he's usually the guy we put on work that involved those newfangled, fancy electronics in cars these days."  
  
"Oh really? I'm really into electronics myself! I make a lot of repairs on my computer to keep it running." You could actually engage a little bit with this stuff, having been so keen on engineering, electronics and mechanic stuff yourself. The man with shaggy, salt-grey hair smiled at you, a small gap between his two front teeth exposed as he chuckled at your enthusiasm.  
  
"I've heard; Ben says you pretty much have to keep that bad boy held together with duct tape with how old it is. Kind of impressive you've pulled that off there... Peter, right?"  
  
"Yeah, Peter Parker." The man snapped his fingers.  
  
"Right, right. Sorry about that, bad with names." You nodded understandingly as Ben moved down the line. All the while a parade float featuring the Big Apple Circus was marching down the line, music and a grand display of talent accompanying it as it was backed by the Macy's Golden Star balloons.  
  
"That there's Charlie. Don't mind how skinny he is, he doesn't work on the floor with us; he's actually responsible for having the boss run the business side of things. We let him come along just to be polite." Charlie chuckled, a slight whistling sound as he leaned over your way.  
  
"Plus I'm responsible for divvying out their checks so, you know, gotta keep me happy right?" The man's nasally laugh was joined by the laughter of the rest of the couch and those surrounding it. "Besides, the grease monkeys could use a little bit of smarts around to keep track of things."  
  
"Hey now I take offense to that."  
  
"Which part Zach, that you're a grease covered mess or that you're a chimp?" The group laughed, though the women at least tried to look slightly abashed at the remark, as Ben pointed over to the man, Zach, in question; a big burly brute of a guy.  
  
"Well on both scores Zach's pretty useful; if we need some heavy lifting done he's usually the go to guy around the shop, and if we need to get an engine checked for any erosion damage done by the gas and oil people tend to pour in pretty thoughtlessly, well, he's kind of a savant."  
  
"It's my gift and my curse." Zach lamented, earning a round of backslapping as Uncle Ben turned around to the last guy; a brown haired fella who looked only about a decade or so older than you. "That there's Maxwell; electrician and a thumpin' good one. He's the new guy." You arched your eyebrows at that as Maxwell just grinned.  
  
"Eh, not for long; I'm only a temp hire. Around this time of year people just love to bring in their cars to shops in order to get them ready for winter and give them one last check up before the big freeze sets in. The boss hired me to help deal with the workload... and, you know, make sure these dinosaurs don't end up frying the grid at the workshop with all the work they're having to do."  
  
"We're hopin' that we can convince the boss to keep him on board even after the rush; Maxwell here knows his stuff when it comes to wiring. If Bill over there knows electronics, then Maxwell here understands everything there is about wiring and keeping a system running clean." You were actually pretty impressed by that; Uncle Ben was really impressed by that guy and, considering how much Uncle Ben himself understood about all of this, that said something. So as another parade day float marched on by and a marching band took its turn to set the stage for another float, you couldn't help but give Max a friendly wave.  
  
"Man, not everyday that Uncle Ben gives ups to a guy like that Maxwell. Nice to meet you." The younger man smiled but waved his hand.  
  
"Thanks, but please, Maxwell is kind of an old man name... probably why you're Uncle's sticking with it." The folks at and around the couch gave a good hearted laugh as your Aunt clapped a hand on Ben's shoulder, your relatives laughing as Maxwell pointed back at himself. "Just call me [Max](http://specspideyfansite.yolasite.com/resources/unsorted/TSSM%20Max%20Dillon%20-%20smaller.jpg?timestamp=1267405629490)."  
  
"Well Max it's nice to meet you." With that, you saw Uncle Ben look over at the cable box's clock.  
  
"Well, the game's probably back on. You folks have about your fill of the parade for now?" Aunt May chuckled and rubbed Ben's shoulder with the hand still on it, even as the next parade float approached.  
  
"Go on, you boys enjoy your game. We'll just-" As Uncle Ben moved to change the channel, the ongoing commentary of the parade finally managed to catch your ear with this little tidbit.  
  
_"-and here we go; replacing Stark Industries place in the parade this year we have a float brought to us by New York City's very own Oscorp Industries."  
_  
"Wait, hold on, don't change the channel!" You immediately jumped, Ben pausing at that as the rest of the couch laughed at your enthusiastic response. "Oscorp's in the parade this year. Wait, why are they replacing Stark Industries! They're _always_ in the parade!" Indeed; Tony Stark was nothing if not a salesman and, boy howdy, did the man love taking the opportunity to show off what he was doing not just for the nation but for New York in specific. Stark Industries, therefore, almost always bought out a small section of the parade in order to host a very large float, one that featured a great many advancements and inventions that Stark Industries had put out or prototypes over the course of the past year. The float was also always, and you meant _always,_ headed by Tony Stark itself. It was one of your favorite parts of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, even if it was kind of a big stunt for Stark Industries...  
  
Which, in fairness, the entire parade was a stunt for Macy's so, fair was fair, right?  
  
So why wasn't...  
  
Oh.  
  
Right.  
  
"If I had to guess, the Senate Hearings." Yeah, that explanation from Charlie sounded about right. Tony Stark couldn't be in New York right now because he was pretty much constantly on rotation down in D.C. to discuss the Iron Man Armor. Considering that Stark Industries shut down its major weapons division program and the chaos of the last year, from Tony's kidnapping to his reveal as Iron Man... yeah, Stark Industries probably didn't have much to show off this year.  
  
From there it was almost common sense that Oscorp would swoop in to take advantage of the open spot. Heck, the layout of the float wasn't even that dissimilar from the usual gimmick that Stark Industries went with; numerous inventions and advancements pioneered by Oscorp, though they were generally less impressive to look at given that Oscorp's specialty lay more in the medicine and biology side of the field compared to Stark Industries robotics and, prior, weapons focus. Still though, it seems that Oscorp was going full hog to take advantage of this opportunity; even Norman Osborn was out on the parade float, the red haired, older gentleman waving at the crowd in a far more subdued manner than Tony would've, with a calm but pleased smile on his face.  
  
"Haha, sounds like your nephew's pretty interested in this here parade now Ben. Not that I can blame him; my cousin actually got one of them new pacemakers that Oscorp unveiled not too long back. Vin says that it basically fits like a glove and works like a dream." Ben nodded at that, he and Aunt May sharing a quick, amused look as they both looked down at you.  
  
"Well how about it there sport; you wanna see more of the parade or you mind if we switch it back to sports for a bit?"  
  
Oh gosh, some of this stuff on the float was genuinely interesting... but on the other hand, you didn't want to hog up time from the other folks at the couch. They probably were _way_ more interested in the football game. Plus you had a feeling you could hang around with your Aunt and Uncle a bit more regardless of each... so it just came down to hospitality, you guess.

*vr-eeeeEEEeee...*  
  
...  
  
What was that? You couldn't help but lick your lips slightly at the sound; it had come from the TV, a slight screech of noise that barely, just barely, managed to squeak itself out of the televisions sound systems. It was metallic and warble-y and just... gave you this vague sense of... deja vu.  
  
A few people in the crowd seemed to take notice to, heads swiveling about as otherwise most people seemed utterly unaware. Surely you were just hearing things... you and the other people in the crowd who'd reacted...  
  
Including those now reacting to the sound of airplane engines as they got closer and closer, sounding louder over the broadcast, such that it had garnered everyone's [attention](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecQF7fbjnw).  
  
... No.  
  
No. It couldn't be. There was no way. It was a mistake, a plane flying too low, a helicopter's rotors-  
  
Any and all thoughts to the contrary of the sinking feeling in your gut were immediately shattered as, in full view of the camera, a large, metallic shape flew into view, the roar of the engines echoing back and forth off of Manhattans tall buildings, glass trembling at their volume as the shape flew through the air, ducking out of the way of balloons as it made a slingshot for its target.  
  
A lashing out as two, large metal wings swung and great, sleek metal projectiles that were all too familiar to you cut through the air... straight for the Oscorp float. The blades sunk in, people having to throw themselves out of the way to avoid the crashing glass, the crunching metal and the blades themselves as the float was stopped dead in its tracks, the next balloon's crew having stopped and screamed in shock at the sudden turn of events. Chaos erupted as the crowd screamed in fear, as one of the cameras finally focused in on the shape...  
  
The shape of the Vulture.  
  
Glowing green eyes just behind the helmet of the metal man glaring right down at Osborn.  
  
"Oh my God!"  
  
"Is that the guy who attacked the Oscorp Tower?"  
  
"Is _THAT_ what it looked like? Dear Lord!" Immediately you were almost immediately crushed by the rush of people gathering around the couch to watch what had suddenly become an emergency situation. Camera feeds started to cut off as people in the crowd made a break for it.  
  
Your heart sank as you realized what was going on.  
  
The Vulture was making a move to attack Norman Osborn out in the open...  
  
Who knows what he'd do?

"I'm uh..." You start, nervous, your mind already going at a million miles a minute. Great, just great, while so many people were stuffed in your house was when the Vulture finally decided to rear his head and lash out at Osborn. It couldn't have been any other time or at any other place, it had to be right in the middle of Thanksgiving. Granted, when you weren't being indignant about it, this made some amount of sense; this was probably the most open and out there Norman Osborn was bound to be. If Vulture's goal was to scare Norman, or worse, then this would be the prime time to do it...  
  
Didn't mean it wasn't a hassle for you though. Still, you weren't exactly a dummy and so, while you were initially knocked off your feet by Vulture's sudden appearance, you were quickly putting together a good excuse for you to make your way out of here... or at least, what you hoped would be a good excuse.  
  
"I'm gonna make a phone call." The room seemed utterly stunned, with only a few people, your Aunt and Uncle included, acknowledging that as you quickly ran up stairs to get your phone... and of course your other equipment. You quickly made a mad dash around your room, pocketing your smartphone for when you got out of the house and otherwise stuffing your superhero gear into your backpack; costume, Web Shooter, extra cartridges, all thrown in there... except for one of the two Shooters. No, as you quickly leaned out and opened your window, you fired off a line of Webbing to connect to your backpack in order to lower it down to the ground in the little crack between your house and the neighbor's house. With practically everyone in the immediate neighborhood, your direct neighbors included, inside of your house, you felt confident that you wouldn't get spotted.  
  
That done you pulled your smart phone back out as you ran down the stairs, sleeve drawn back over your Web Shooter to conceal it while you made a break for the front entrance, the best excuse your mind could've come up with on such short notice flying from your lips.  
  
"Ned's not answering his phone! I don't know if that's because he's having a panic attack like last time or if he's at the parade!" You do your best to drum up as much concern as you can given the fact that it, along with Ned's original panic attack, was pretty much you blowing smoke out of your butt. "I've got to go check on his house to make sure he's alright or to see if..." You allow your sentence to purposefully drop as you slip on your shoes by the front door.  
  
"Oh, Peter... I know you must be worried but..." Despite Aunt May's concern, she herself seems to realize that yes, this might be necessary. Ned's acting had been so incredibly, surprisingly convincing back during the field trip that everyone knew how badly he freaked out after the Vulture attack. Aunt May, worried for you as she was, obviously couldn't help but have her heart go out to your best friend. Uncle Ben, however, just watched you make for the door and nodded, a serious expression on his face.  
  
"I understand kiddo. Be careful out there; he might be in Manhattan but who knows what could end up happening while you're out and about. Keep an eye on the sky." You sigh in relief; the two people who seemed most invested in you leaving, and who you were most concerned about catching on, seemed to genuinely believe you.  
  
"Thanks Uncle Ben, Aunt May and don't worry, I'll be careful. I'm not sure when I'll be back but I'll be sure to text you when I start heading back, okay?" The older couple nodded their heads, Uncle Ben's serious expression softening into familial concern.  
  
"You just be safe, alright Peter?"  
  
"I will be Uncle Ben." You lied, smiling at them reassuringly as you closed the door behind you. You were off to a slow trot at first, not wanting anyone in the house to catch sight of you running through the windows. You quickly head out and around, looping a bit to avoid direct sight so that you can pick up your backpack before heading off. Once you're a good distance from your home, however, and you're sure that nobody's looking out for you, all bets are off. You immediately start running, breaking into as fast as a sprint as would look normal for a person as you start looking around for a good spot to change and a good place to start launching yourself toward 6th Avenue on Manhattan.  
  
You then recall that, hey, you can jump good and climb up walls. As soon as you find a good alley you immediately set to climbing, clearing a good amount of distance between you and the roof of the building with an initial jump before dragging yourself and your backpack up the side of the building. Ned's ringtone is already furiously hitting your phone; he must've just know found time to get clear himself. You do your best to hit the top of the building before accepting the call, putting the phone on speaker before setting it down so you can talk.  
  
"Talk to me Ned." You say as you immediately stripped off your good dress shirt, Ned's somewhat heavy breathing on the other end of the line.  
  
_"Dude, pretending I'm having another attack and sprinting up the stairs... hoo boy. Think I might need to take up walking. Kind of winded."  
_  
"Did it work?" You asked, quickly putting on your costume's sweatshirt before getting to work on the shoes and sweatpants.  
  
_"For a little bit maybe but you know my mom. She'll probably be back up here soon so we gotta make this count man. You still in your house or..."  
_  
"I'm out, I told them that I couldn't get in touch with you so I was gonna make a break over to your house to check on you or make sure you were at the parade or not."  
  
_"Great minds think alike, I guess."_ Despite the situation you can't help but chuckle a little. _"I'll do my best to convince my mom that I'm gonna head out and meet you after a bit so you don't get in trouble for not showing up directly. I'll say I finally answered you or something."_ That sounded good to you. Know, more pressing matters like the crime in progress itself.  
  
"Talk to me Ned, what's the police chatter like?"  
  
_"Dude it's getting pretty heavy. The police don't want to give Vulture a chance to break away again so they're ordering cops around the sight of the parade to pour in and try to deal with him. They've also got a police helicopter getting prepped."  
_  
"Prepped how?" You winced as you slipped on your mask, readjusting the goggles just a bit as Ned stayed silent for a moment.  
  
_"Beanbags compared to what the cops on the ground got. Seems like the strategy for the cops there at the parade is to try and herd him off till a helicopter can come in and start knocking him down."  
_  
"Probably not gonna work." You muttered as you slipped on your other Web Shooter.  
  
_"Yeah, really."_ You could practically hear Ned roll his eyes at that; you both had seen Vulture bust into a highly guarded complex like he owned the place and then march out with a piece of equipment, seemingly without being slowed down by the armed guards. The idea the NYPD would do better, even with a helicopter, didn't really hit home for you. Though...  
  
"So this might get dicey for me if they do end up getting here."  
  
_"You have some time though; the helicopter team that's available is pretty far down the island and they're gonna need some time to get the crew and stuff together."  
_  
"About how long?"  
  
_"I dunno man, I dunno. I don't even really know how fast you can get across NYC yourself, dude."  
_  
...  
  
Yeah, neither did you. Your patrols had been more casual, slow going affairs with swinging around. Even in Manhattan where you could pretty much only swing to get around you had taken it a bit slow during your normal patrols.  
  
This would be much more akin to you chasing down those two cars... stretched out over the good number of miles it'd take for you to get to 6th Avenue. You weren't sure exactly how fast you could cover that ground...  
  
"Well I guess today's the day to find out Ned." You clipped your last cartridge into place, stuffing the other two into your pockets, as you slung your backpack back over your shoulders. "I'm gonna have to hit radio silence now Ned. Text me if you got anything important popping up, otherwise-"  
  
_"Yeah, you just focus on getting over there man. Good luck."_ The call went dead as you pocketed your smartphone; you'd dump it in your bag as soon as you got close to 6th Avenue. For now, you wanted to be sure that if Ned texted you, you'd feel in. In the meantime you took a look out across Queens and Manhattan, to the Queensborough Bridge. If you were going to get there before too much damage could be done, before too many people could be hurt or worse, you'd need to cross all of this and do so as fast as you could.  
  
There was no time for tests, no time for trial runs. You just had to jump right into it...  
  
So you took a breath, closed your eyes and took a dive off of the building.

  
You allow a couple moments to pass, letting yourself build up momentum as part of your dive. Then, within a second, you 'fwip' out a line of Webbing and start swinging, taking the momentum of your initial dive and turning it into the first of your forward momentum for this hard push. Unlike so many other times when you went Web Swinging where you had been... well, not calm and relaxed, as swinging around like that was still tiring after a long time, but you were far more easy going about it. It was fun and you didn't quite push into the swings unless you needed to, allowing the natural momentum of your arcs through the air to take you to where you needed to go.  
  
Here however, that couldn't be farther from the truth. You tucked your legs and, at the fasted point in your arc, kicked out and away, sending yourself hurtling forward before firing off another stand of Webbing with which to continue on. You were an active player in this dance, constantly shifting your body weight around in order to throw yourself through the air. It wasn't graceful or a sight to behold, you were sure, but with the basic laws of physics and momentum on your side it was getting you across Queens at an incredibly fast rate. You took a deep breath with each swing, pushing your body as hard as it could go, straining muscles in order to push yourself into each catch, swing, release, kick, fwip and catch again, repeating this rhythmic cycle. You didn't bother to land on buildings, or at least, you didn't so long as you needed to; taking a moment to sprint across a roof where it would provide the absolute most straightforward path to the Queensborough Bridge was about all the parkour you were doing; that was good for saving on Webbing, not good for getting across New York as fast as you could. Eventually you reached the Queensborough bridge and immediately swung across its great length, Webbing sticking to the white, or damn near, steel beams supporting the bridge's structure as you swung your way up and down its length.  
  
In the middle of the bridge a text hit you and you started swinging one handed, pulling out your phone as you quickly read as quick as you could. The copter crew was ready and would shortly leave its heliport soon, but it would still take time to arrive on the scene. It was vague but you hoped that meant you'd have enough time to at least deal with Vulture before it showed... otherwise you weren't sure what would happen.  
  
You stuffed the phone into your backpack as you finished crossing the bridge, immediately looking out for a good spot to drop your of stuff to pick up later. You quickly swung by a nearby set of buildings and dove between them into their alley, dropping your bag off, attached to a wall by a line of Webbing that you'd stuck to the wall and your bag, before zipping off quick as you came. If all went well you could pick it up later in order to change into your normal clothes when you were done. You swung through Manhattan and, as you approached 6th Avenue, you took turns reaching down and switching to the other cartridges stored in your Web Shooters. The ones you'd been using to travel weren't quite empty but you didn't want to have to pause to reload close to the start of the fight when it'd no doubt be its heaviest. You needed to be fresh, or at least fresh as you could be given the circumstances.  
  
The wind bit bitterly at you, causing you to shiver as the strong winds of the high rises of Manhattan started to buffet you. Man it did not get that much warmer from before sunrise. Winter really was here this year.  
  
Finally, you made your initial approach, swinging down 6th Avenue in order to make it to the section of the parade where Vulture had attacked... and as you did so, passing the Goku balloon no less, your eyes go slightly wide. Off past the TMNT float and the Pikachu Balloon, off past the several groupings of abandoned marching band instruments and gear was... just chaos. People were desperately hiding around cars or trying to claw their ways inside buildings or pushing and shoving their way past each other into what side passages were allowed by the tight building designs of this signature road in NYC. People in floats were hiding inside, hoping the structures would protect them, while others just watched in sheer, open mouth terror.  
  
The police had been knocked around and hard; one was on top of the dented roof of his own vehicle, a trio of claw-like punctures in the roof as the officer groaned and breathed awkwardly. Another two were unconscious, knocked together into a nearby car and laying on the ground. Another had actually been bashed through the front window of another vehicle while several others were just scattered about the ground, holding arms and legs that were bent out of shape. Others were, by this point, hiding or running with the crowd. Though the injured officers, or more seriously anyway, were in good company with Norman Osborn's guards who were similarly knocked around, though it seemed that they'd been batted about even more carelessly and were hurt terribly. Heck, some of them were stuck to the ground same as the Osborn guards back at Oscorp, with Vulture's feathers piercing through their clothes... though these were sunk a bit more into places like their legs or arms, such that they were lightly bleeding.  
  
Then there were a handful of people that didn't fit either group who seemed so oddly hurt... but it didn't take you long to figure them out.  
  
After all, another of their number was currently in the claws of the Vulture himself, the man flying in place several dozens of feet off the ground as kept this person in the claws of his metal talons.  
  
**"Come now Osborn. I knew you were a spineless coward, hiding behind your money... but don't tell me that you're this spineless? Hiding inside that building rather than coming out and facing the music?"** You blinked, arching an eyebrow. What? What was he talking about. If Norman Osborn managed to slip inside one of the buildings, more stone than the glass and steel structure of his own building, before Vulture could get him, surely he would've done the smart thing and ran away. Not...  
  
Not staying inside the building, just barely out of view of the Vulture himself, keeping an eye on the situation.  
  
Oh man.  
**  
"Are you really just gonna let me keep terrorizing your people while you stay inside there? I can keep pulling them out of that float all day if I have to, Osborn."  
**  
Sure enough, the Oscorp float had been dead in the water from the initial attack, with much of it pinned down by the initial volley of feathers. People were hiding inside but, judging by the sheer damage done by the float, he was able to peel some of them out eventually. As you swung in, approaching as fast as you could, a tired, sardonic laugh escaped Vulture.  
**  
"Well, so much for the higher ups valuing their employees, huh little lady?"  
**  
He even ascended higher, in quite a burst of speed to your surprise, as he spoke before eventually dropping the employee who had been in his claws, the young woman screaming as she fell toward the ground; what had likely been the same fast of her fellow employees who know lay on the concrete, groaning in pain and with clearly broken bones from their falls.  
  
You heart stopped; you were so close... your mind immediately started firing on all cylinders.  
  
You were here now.  
  
You could make a difference now.

You took a deep breath as you dove down from your position. Surprise advantage be damned, you weren't gonna let someone else get hurt now that you were here to stop it. You zoomed by Vulture, presumably giving the bird suit wearing weirdo a bit of a shock as you did so, diving down as you fired out two Webline's; one at the nearby building to give your arc a more stable swing into her and the other at a streetlight to give yourself a spot to set the woman down from. You release your long held breath in a bit of a shock as you catch the woman, the air being driven slightly from your body from the impact as you continue to swing. She's freaking out and kicking around, naturally given the peril she was just in, but your strong grip all but ensured she wasn't going to slip out. You finish your swing with a quick flip as you pull the both of you to the streetlight, landing on top of it before using the Webline to slowly lower the woman down.  
  
"Don't worry there miss, I gotcha. Everybody gets one... or, you know, more if they need it." Despite your attempt to inject some levity into the situation, the woman didn't seem all that entertained. She kicked and pushed against you while still in your grip and, once she was low enough to the ground, she jumped the rest of the way and started running. "Well... I guess that's one way to react to falling like that." You say with a shrug, before turning your attention to the object of your ire at the moment; the flying, bird brain himself.  
  
The guy who, by some extension, made it possible for you to have these powers in the first place...  
  
Kind of ironic that you'd be the guy to clip his wings, when you thought about it.  
  
"Hey now Buzzard, I'm upset that they skimped out on the Snoopy balloon this year too, but that's no excuse for taking things this far!" You loudly declared, turning to fully face the Vulture as the man lowered slightly. The helmet he was wearing and the visor obscuring his eyes made it nigh impossible to actually see him expression but the slight tilt of his head gave you a good enough hint that it was confusion.  
  


**"The Spider-Man? Well, I can't say I was expecting you around here... didn't want to see you around here either."** You couldn't help but smile at that... though there was an equal kick back. If your theory was wrong, then he was just saying this because he didn't want to fight a full blown superhero; your first supervillain, already cowed by your reputation...  
  
If your theory was right, then this was someone working for Toomes, someone who probably knew Liz. Someone who probably appreciated what you did. That... was less awesome.  
  
"Well sorry to disappoint you but, well, I'm here." You stretched your arms out; that long journey all the way over here left you sore all over from the cold and the exertion. You decided you could take a moment to banter a bit to let you at least catch your breath before getting back into the fight. "Trust me though, I don't necessarily want to be; those giant wings of yours is reminding me of all the turkey I'm missing out on not being at home. So how about we cut to the chase, you let me take you in, nobody else gets hurt and we can enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner... well, I imagine they'll provide one to you in a cell anyway." You see Vulture shake his head at that, an amused chuckle escaping his lips.  
  
**"Funny. You are right though; I have a Thanksgiving Dinner to get back to as well, so I need to finish my own business here."** You watched as Vulture waved you off. **"You're lucky that you're in my good graces, kid. Run off now and let me get back to dealing with Osborn and I'll forget all about this. Trust me... you don't want to be part of this."** With that, the Vulture turned his back on you, heading back toward the Oscorp float...  
  
...  
  
Did he just ignore you? How rude!  
  
"Hey now, don't go running off! You can't just do that, you're my first supervillain!" You quickly fire off a Webline that connects with one of Vulture's wings and give it a tug. For a moment there is a lot of resistance as the Vulture's flying outfit tries to keep moving forward at the same clip, the engines revving up from the sudden and unexpected resistance before, to your satisfaction, Vulture is actually tugged back through the air slightly. "I mean come on; terrorizing the innocent, dramatic motivation stemming from a wealthy elite who wronged you? This is a classic good guy, bad guy situation! You can't just ignore me like that!"  
  
Vulture looked back at you and you can just imagine the surprise on his face from that little show, even as he looks down at the Webbing pulling back on his other wing. You watch, however, as he just sighs and shakes his head, his wings repositioning in order to bring the bladed feathers of one over to the Webbing on the other.  
  
**"You're cute kid..."** Vulture declared menacingly as he so easily and effortlessly snipped your Webbing, giving you a little 'eep' as the Webline goes slack. **"-but you're quickly getting too cute by half. Now just stay out of my way."** With that, the Vulture once again turned his back on you. Okay, clearly this guy didn't view you as a threat or anything to look after... how rude. You needed a way to get his attention, to draw him from Osborn and to get this battle away from the ground. How could you get him to put that kind of focus on you, thought?  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Maybe you weren't doing the _right_ kind of taunting in this case. Maybe you needed to needle him a bit.  
  
"Man, that's pretty slick. Cut through my Webbing like wet tissue paper. Who made those wings anyway? They're really well designed for your entire theme there and look like they fly like a dream! Toomes Aerospace Engineering right? Gotta be!"  
  
...  
  
**"What was that?"** Oh man. You could practically hear the venom in his tone of voice, even through the modulator.  
  
"I mean come on! I love their work, it totally has to be a company like TAE that you got your stuff from right? It's way too well designed!" You watched as The Vulture swiveled in the air, slowly but surely facing you with those green lit eyes of his. There was just a long, silent staring contest between the two of you as the tension built in the air, tightening and constricting until you could feel a distinct pressure in your chest, a knot of worry.  
  


**... Well son, hope you're happy."** A roar of his engines rang out in the streets, his glowing green eyes now hard locked onto you. **"You've got my attention."  
**  
"You know what? I am pretty happy." With that you started to swing away.  
  
As you're swinging through the air and up and higher, you try to put your general plan together; step one is of course to get the fight up in the sky in order to take advantage of your Web Swinging. The further you are from the ground level, the safer people down there will be, with less chances for the Vulture to pull off any shenanigans. Next up is that, once he comes for you, you fire off a Webline and try to catch him. If you can just get on top of him you're pretty sure that you can start beating him well enough, either through Webbing or some good old fashioned punches. So once he got his butt up here, you could start to do your part and-  
  
**ZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG!  
**  
HOLY SMOKES!  
  
You immediately pull up and twist your body with the help of your Webline, swinging about in mid air as you fold up as best you can. For a moment everything's a blur of metal and the roar of engines as the loud noise and sudden change in scenery leaves you flabbergasted for a moment. It's only once you've successfully put your head back on straight after your Spider Sense screamed in your ear that you realized what just happened; you just sandwiched yourself in the space between the two, large metal wings of Vulture's flight suit, its bladed feathers just barely avoiding carving you up thanks to your quick timing. As you pass through the gap between the two wings and as Vulture flies past you could fire another Webline off to correct yourself in mid air, watching in stunned amazement as Vulture's engines roar, the man flying so Goddamn fast that he almost seemed like a blur for a moment. Finally, at the end of his flight path, he seemed to arch around, taking a long barrel turn in order to face you again, those beady green eyes staring right at you...  
  
Though that was a _little_ hard to see from the half a football field's worth of distance, or damn near, that he traversed. Now, you absolutely didn't regret bringing this fight higher into the air, after all, this was where the fight would be safest for civilians. However, you did suddenly come to grips with just how much of an advantage that Vulture had here. Forget your maneuverability with your Webbing, that flight suit was even better than you'd thought from the Oscorp attack. He'd even gotten fully out of the range of your Web Shooters with that stunt! If you actually wanted to tag him with one of your Weblines you'd pretty much need to push yourself out as far as you could move as part of one swing and then take one shot at him with your other Web Shooter.  
  
That didn't seem like a winning recipe in your book. So you quickly rethought your strategy. You needed to keep him high but also present him an obstacle that wouldn't allow him to charge you. Maybe something like...  
  
...  
  
The Legendary Super Saiyan?  
  
You quickly swing a bit down and toward the ground, but only doing so just enough that you could land on top of the very top of the Super... urgh, the Bluper Saiyan Goku's hair and turn to face Vulture. Alright, let's see Mr. Pilot Jacket dive bomb you now!  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You know when you thought that, you didn't mean it literally. Especially when you could actually hear the roar of his engines.  
  
Oh no, oh no no no! You watch with wide eyes as Vulture just guns his engines, flying down toward you with those two wings of his ready to take a swing at your position. Your Spider Sense goes off, not that you needed it to see the threat, and you let it guide you in your dodge, jumping up into the air just seconds before Vulture would've swung at the spot you were standing...  
  
Unfortunately, this causes him to plow right into Goku's head, easily punching straight through the plastic top and...  
  
**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!  
**  
You cry out in surprise as a huge rush of pressurized air and flailing, whipping plastic smacks at you, sending you spinning through the air. You quickly do your best to tuck up and roll into it, spinning a few more times just to burn off some of the energy before you fired off a Webline to get back to swinging. Your eyes remained wide with shock. Oh man, this fight was totally over. You just couldn't beat him! I mean, come on! How were you supposed to beat the guy who killed, literally killed, the Legendary Super Saiyan... God Super Saiyan.  
  
...  
  
Okay, but more seriously, clearly the floats themselves weren't going to ward Vulture off from his charges as you adjusted in mid swing to look back to the chaos of the balloon. You do your best to try and pick the Vulture out of the chaos, hoping that maybe you were lucky and he was currently being whipped up inside of the balloon. However, three things ended up guiding you to the answer of that question being 'no'.  
  
First off, balloon Goku had an exit wound that you could just barely make out amidst all the chaos... oh man, it was like Raditz all over again.  
  
Secondly was the loud roar of engines that just barely hung underneath the whirling cyclone of air and plastic that was the balloon...  
  
Finally was your Spider-Sense going nuts, telling you that you were in danger. Sure enough you started to dodge just as the Vulture charged through the balloon, one of his wings easily slicing a good deal of the remaining plastic into ribbons as part of his charge while the other was aimed at you. A quick leap up from your swing got you to go over the attempted attack, another Webline fired off to keep swinging as you watched Vulture soar back into the air... again out of your reach.  
  
Dammit. He was just gonna keep doing that if you let him. 6th Avenue was nice and long, if you kept giving him a shot to go as far up down the street as he liked he'd take it. Semi-solid things like the floats or the balloons wouldn't work either, clearly, the guy just didn't care... not that you'd get down to float level. Honestly, that was just one step removed from street level, and the entire point of being up here was to draw him away from civilians...  
  
So instead you thought of the obvious; what if instead of letting him face you straight down the street... you got him to face toward a stone wall? You quickly swung up the sides of the street, gaining ground as you fired off Webline after Webline in order to ascend until, finally, you stuck up against the side of one of the stone buildings on 6th Avenue, grinning to yourself as you moved to face a surprised Vulture... or you assumed surprised, his body language seemed surprised.  
  
Alright, there was no way in Hell that he was going to charge a stone building. No way. You at least disarmed him of that. From here on, you could start thinking of a way to actually up up to his level and tag him...  
  
...  
  
You know...  
  
After you dealt with those feathers that slid ever so slightly out of place in his right wing.  
  
You watch, wide eyed and fearful, as Vulture's feathers, those things you saw stick men to walls by their clothes, immediately sing through the air toward you. Your Spider Sense goes off and you... hesitate, for just a moment. This brought you back to that moment. To that time in Oscorp. Seeing these things, one of which left you in the very spot where the Spider bit you... it took you out of the fight for a moment. It took your mind back to feeling that vulnerable again. That scared.  
  
...  
  
You narrowed your gaze though. You weren't that Peter Parker anymore. You weren't scared and you weren't fragile.  
  
You were Spider-Man now. You could handle a few errant projectiles. So immediately you start dipping and practically dancing on the side of the building, artfully dodging the series of feathers as they clang against the wall. The stone structure of the buildings were made of stronger stuff than the brick and plaster of Oscorp's walls, allowing them to just bounce off the building while only leaving a small chip. You grin at that, having thwarted the attack, as the feathers fell... fell...  
  
FELL DOWN TO THE GROUND OH NO!  
  
You don't even think as you press your feet against the wall and immediately send yourself flying down toward the falling metal feathers with sudden kick off the wall.  
  
As you plummet through the air you feel the cold air whip against your mask, your breathing heavy as you fold yourself in to try and speed up your own fall, the leap having given you a lot of speed. As you approached you quickly realized that you in no way had enough hands in order to catch all of these bladed feathers and then catch yourself. You did however have some sticky feet. As you dropped down you spun in the air, landing your feet against two of the feathers and sticking them there with your Wall Crawling capabilities. Feeling them secure against your shoes you quickly turned and aimed both Web Shooters. With one shot you fired a line and snagged the last feather, letting the Webline snag against the building to stop its fall before it can get near to the ground. With the other you quickly slow down your own fall before letting yourself bounce back up the Webline, giving you ample time and space to stick your hands to the wall...  
  
Your feet, not so much. Those awkwardly scratch against the walls of the stone building as the feathers leave you pretty much unable to connect using your feet. You sigh in relief though; at the very least the people on the ground wouldn't suddenly find a feather-  
  
**ZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!  
**  
-LODGED IN THEIR BACK LIKE YOU WERE GOING TO!  
  
The roar of an engine hit your ears as you ducked out of the way of a swipe; it wasn't a charge and it wasn't another attempt to fire bladed feathers at you; Vulture had moved up after you'd managed to stop your own fall in order to swing those giant wings of his at you. You can't help but grin, your hands sending you spinning against the side of the building as you easily ducked around one set of blades. As dangerous as this was, you couldn't help but feel yourself get into a rhythm. If you kept this up, the next dodge would be even easier...  
  
Provided you didn't, by force of habit, try to use one of your feet as part of the dodge, sending you stumbling awkwardly in place as your foot, busy sticking to the feather, just awkwardly scraped and skid against the wall, leaving you out of position...  
  
Soon, two sounds were in your ears.  
  
The further ringing of your Spider Sense as it slowly faded out after the passage of immediate danger.  
  
And your own howling scream of pain.

You cried out in pain, grunting and wincing as you doubled over. Your dodging and dipping had landed with you, hands bent back to keep you held up on the wall. Despite your instincts you kept your hands there; even with your mind screaming at you to apply pressure to your new wound, you couldn't do so without taking the risk of falling toward the ground. Behind your goggles you glanced down, slowly, to your side and saw something that caught your breath; while Vulture's bladed wings hadn't sunk deep into your side, it was definitely deeper than the bullet wound; a solid inch or two into your side had been sliced open by Vulture's wing, only failing to spill blood because-  
  
*Schlick!*  
  
"Agh!"  
  
-because he hadn't yet removed his wing from your side. As he did so the cut open fabric of your costume, so cleanly carved open by the sharp end of those feathers, flapped open in the cold breeze, freezing air immediately smacking into something wet as you felt it, your blood, ooze down your side. The blue on your costume's side stained red quickly, a crimson color mixing with the navy hue, as a coppery smell filled the air. You hurt, and you hurt bad... but you were still standing. You didn't feel like you were losing too much blood and going lightheaded, you didn't feel like you had anything major nicked. Everything hurt and hurt terribly... but you still had your head on your shoulders, at least. Your ducking and dodging had seen to that, at the very least.  
  
Still, the sight of your own blood in such amounts did give you pause; even when you'd been shot the wound hadn't been so bad. This hurt a lot and you could only watch for a few seconds as your blood seeped out of the slice cut into your side.  
  
**"Looks like first blood goes to me, kid. Don't worry, I'll make it quick from here on out."  
**  
Still, you had more major things to worry about so you couldn't gawk long. As much as the sight disquieted you, that voice reminded you that you had to focus. So you turned back to Vulture, flying so tantalizingly close in front of you as he gloated, hands piloting a few handles on his suit to get his wings moving around. He'd moved up close, really close, in order to get that shot in on you. Good, that just meant you finally had an opportunity to turn this all around on buzzard brain. Your mind raced as your feet continued to scratch against the wall, still awkwardly lugging around the bits of metal on them. Dammit, you weren't going to be able to move around as quickly with those on... but you needed to take your shot here. How were you gonna-

... Wait. You had the wings on your feet. Those razor sharp wings that could carve through the walls of Oscorp and pin people to them. Your head snapped into focus as, immediately, your eyes glanced over his wing designs. You couldn't dare to imagine that you could just... you know, punch straight through. These were both made of the same material after all, however sharp these were the chances of them not bouncing off from the attempt was small. No, you needed to find a spot, a place where you could make this count. The wings design... you weren't gonna lie, this was way beyond you. You couldn't even imagine all the precision work into making sure the engines were in those gyros, constantly able to move along with the rest of the wing while being piloted, or how everything fit together. Heck, you weren't even sure how he had space in there for more feathers, though you didn't doubt it was possible. Whoever designed this, especially if it was Toomes himself, he was way beyond you...  
  
Still. That didn't mean you couldn't depend on basics. If there was one basic fact that Uncle Ben taught you is that metal didn't bend well. It could stretch but when you tried to bend metal out of shape, it was more likely to lose its strength or break depending on how thick it was. So metal parts meant to move needed space, needed joints, needed spots where the metal could shift around. It's why medieval knight armor was design the way it was around human joints. These wings were meant to bend, be flat, adjust for the sake of flight, fold in to help him out or even just move and shift so that they could be thrust at an opponent. Metal couldn't do all of that if it was just a solid layer...  
  
So there had to be a spot. Multiple spots. On each wing. Where...  
  
Where...  
  
You could see it.  
  
Just barely peeking through.  
  
The clouds in the sky through a slight hole in the wing. On both sides.  
  
Bingo.  
  
You grunted as you shifted your weight on your hands, letting your legs lash out as you quickly spun about. You squinted as you moved, feeling the pain shoot up your side as the metal pulled and shifted your weight around. It didn't matter though; you had a target and you were going to exploit it. Before Vulture could even react you lashed one leg out and, with a hope and a prayer, kicked as hard as you could. You were greeted by a grinding sound, skittering about, before relief rushed over you as you heard that grinding sound continue, continuous as the feather went in deeper and deeper; you'd nailed your target. You unstuck your foot, one down, as you spun about again. With another lashed out kick you struck again and, sure enough, you sunk the feather into the whole on the opposing wing, the grinding sound sliding in before you unstuck your foot.  
  
Feet free you quickly flipped around and about until both of your feet stuck against the walls, allowing you to present your hands. You fired off, using the feathers as rough measuring sticks of where you needed to aim in the heat of the moment. The Weblines slammed into the gaps, chunking against the feathers and goo-ing up as they gunked in there and formed up, the shifting of the wings, already difficult with feathers in their joints, becoming more stiff, less varied, as your Webbing filled in the gaps. Then came the final part; you clenched your fists for this one and winced, remembering how badly it hurt to punch the concrete pillar back at your training grounds. This was gonna suck...  
  
You took a swing-  
  
***Clang!*  
  
*crick*  
**  
"Agh!"  
  
Yep, you were right, it sucked! Not as bad as the fucking slice in your side but still, your knuckled ached and throbbed after having slammed them into the feathers but you didn't relent. You followed through on the arc of your punch, sending all of your might into them as you watched the metal at first shift but, when left with no room to move thanks to the metal surrounding it and your Webbing, it slowly bent in place, pointing at a harsh inward angle rather than the straight line it had been before. You winced and cursed your luck as you repeated this with the other feather, slamming your fist into it and hearing your knuckles crack as pain shot up your arm. Gods this all hurt so bad...  
  
But you did it.  
  
You did exactly what you wanted to do.  
  
**"You... you little... what did you do to my wings?!"** The Vulture cried out, confused, as he glanced around at his two wings, the metal feathers he'd tossed your way now jammed hard into a prime set of joints you'd picked out on both sides. You watched as Vulture panicked and immediately started moving around the controls right next to his 'cockpit' in the middle of the wings, kicking his legs as he tried to get away from you. You watched as sparks of metal and electricity from cut wires began to spark from the areas where you'd jammed the wings in, the super sharp edges grinding and slicing into the vulnerable material as the wings desperately tried to work against the bent, glued in steel...  
  
The engines fired with the wings having not significantly moved at all, all of which lead to Vulture just plowing into the side of the building just above you. As cant few chipped bits of stone fell on top of your mask as you heard the man cradled by the machine gasp in pain, the roar of his engines drowning all any softer noises you could've picked up on.  
  
Jackpot.  
  
"Well buzzard brain I'd wager I just clipped your wings... but let me double check just to be sure!"  
  
You kick off the wall, jumping up as high as you can as you immediately grab the top of Vulture's flight helmet. Doing a bit of a flip you propel yourself over his head and his wings by pressing off the skull of his helmet. Just as you get behind him you kick your feet out to stick the landing, literally, using your Wall Crawling abilities in order to firmly plant your feet on Vulture's back. Good, step one complete... step two'll need some Webbing. You quickly point and, taking advantage of being behind the big bad bird, you stick them to the ends of his wings and get a firm grasp on your Webbing.  
  
Now then, for the tug of war... or well, for you, just the tug. You immediately pull back hard on both of Vulture's wings, the stiffened joints groaning and creaking under the pressure as those that now surround the metal feathers cut and carve their way into the mechanisms inside the great beating wings. Sparks fly as both wings are cut up from the inside, Vulture's head wildly lashing about as he cries out in a panic.  
  
**"NOOO! You idiot! What are you doing to my creations!"** Your efforts succeed in at least somewhat loosening up the wings now that the blades have cut themselves more space in the joints, allowing some movement in them as Vulture shifts around. His engines fire, blowing out as you can feel the wings try to move away from you, aided by the propulsion of their own jets.  
  
"Oh come on there Vult-y, I'm pretty sure we've already established that... I've... got the horsepower... to match your rig." You dug your feet in deeper as you pulled back yourself. You both continued this tug of war for a moment until two sounds reached your ears...  
  
One, the sudden kicking, jolting sound of an engine dying as fire shot forth from the joints on Vulture's right wind... and two, your Webbing snapping between the pressure of two such powerful forces playing tug of war against it. You just blink at the slowly dying engine... before suddenly both you and the Vulture are sent screaming wildly through the air, guided by only one engine of one wing.  
  
**"AGH! NO, MY WING! YOU DOLT, WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"  
**  
"Calm down, I have a plan!"  
  
OH DEAR GOD, THINK OF A PLAN, YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE A PANCAKE, NOT AFTER GETTING THIS FAR!  
  
You look around desperately. Come ooon! There's gotta be something here for you to use like that Captain guy everyone wouldn't shut up about! Something, anything to dampen the impact enough that... that...  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You cried a single nerd tear. It had to be done.  
  
You quickly fired off another line of Webbing, nabbing it against Vulture's free wing. Without the direction of the man himself it was easier to try and steer and move the wing, easing off its wild flailing as you pulled against it, guiding it as best you could. It was by no means easy and you were still losing air pretty quick, but at the very least you were now going in a straight line while losing air rather than spiraling out of control... well, a relatively straight line. It was more like a serpentine if you were being honest. Still, swishing through the air or not, you were getting to where you needed to go...  
  
You waited for the right moment.  
  
Waited for just the right swing... then, it came.  
  
The moment had arrived; there were only one set of words that were right for this.  
  
"[PIKACHU I CHOOSE YOU!](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/R39MM6/the-pikachu-balloon-seen-during-the-2018-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-in-new-york-city-R39MM6.jpg)"  
  
You fired off a line of Webbing, smacking it into the floating balloon's ear as you pulled as hard as you could. Between your guiding efforts and the engine itself the turn was quick, aiming Vulture like a bottle rocket toward Pikachu's balloon. You jumped off, wanting to maintain some air so you wouldn't drop too low, as you yanked back hard on the wing. A sudden snap, a jolt back and the engine died, cut off like its brother. With both engines cut, however, the trajectory you set up for Vulture continued unabated while you dropped like a stone to the ground. Two things happened; you fired off another line of Webbing as quickly as you could, snagging it to Pikachu as you swung down, then forward then back up into the air above the balloon.  
  
Then Vulture hit the balloon and bounced across it, cutting holes in it that immediately had air jetting out of it from his impact. You fired off a line of Webbing from your position near the balloon as you snagged Vulture's back, keeping him from bouncing all the way back and off Pikachu's back.  
  
Not today!  
  
You quickly then dropped back down toward the bottom of Pikachu, snagging your Webbing connected to Vulture to his side before swinging back up and around to repeat the gesture. The next few seconds were filled with you swinging about the deflating balloon, moving with one Web Shooter and dousing Vulture with Webbing with the other. When the balloon got low enough to the ground you stuck a landing on a nearby street light and just kept firing off lines at Vulture, pinning him to the deflating back of Pikachu before the crumpled balloon hit the ground, the last bits of air seeping out of it as Vulture was left pinned to it, unable to move between his dead wings and your Webbing.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Hoo..."  
  
You thought you'd give a 'WOO' after all of that but, to be honest, that relieved, strained sigh was all you could manage even as you smiled. You rubbed at your forehead, feeling the sweat press against your mask as you stood up straight on the street light, looking down at your handiwork...  
  
...  
  
You couldn't help yourself, you did swung your hips back and forth in a little dance as you jumped, fired off a line of Webbing, and lowered yourself back down to the ground using it. You didn't dance too much though... not because it was undignified, but because your side still **really** hurt. If you could dance without feeling like you were getting stabbed in the side, you totally would. Your first supervillain, snagged! This was a big moment for you! The bad guy was caught, Osborn didn't get kidnapped or killed, his attack on the parade was over and only Goku and Pikachu had to pay for it...  
  
Their sacrifices would be remembered.  
  
"Well alright gang!" You say, mostly to yourself, as you land on the ground, clapping your hands together. By now the police on the ground, those still mostly conscious anyway, were just staring at you, a mix of disbelief and frustration on their faces as the crowds, hidden inside buildings and pausing in their attempts to get away, just watched in stunned silence. "I think it's time to take off this mask and see who the Owl Man really is!" A bit of an old reference but hey, it still held up. You walked on over to Vulture, the man just sitting there, glowing eyes staring down at the ground as the Webbing of your own design surrounded him, keeping him trapped in place. You quickly reached down, knowing his arms were pretty much pinned in, as you fiddled with that flight helmet of his. Time to see what grizzled asshole that Toomes' Company got lined up to steal from Oscorp got in this suit...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"... Oh... oh man..."  
  
Your enthusiasm died the second that you saw who was actually beneath the mask. You dropped the faceplate of the flight helmet as you looked down, eyes wide behind your own goggles as you took a good, long and hard look at the man behind it. Adrian Toomes. Owner of Toomes Aerospace Engineering. Guy who supposedly got fleeced by Norman Osborn...  
  
Father of Liz Allen.  
  
...  
  
The guy who gave you your super powers.  
  
It was all him.  
  
Come on.  
  
No.  
  
You had to be seeing things right? Adrian Toomes didn't... didn't load himself up into a giant bird costume to commit massive acts of terror against Oscorp in two separate locations, putting dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of people's lives at stake. Right? That's not what was happening here right? Liz Allen, a nice enough girl even if she was Flash's girlfriend, didn't have her father right in front of you, glaring at you with hateful, frustrated eyes that screamed, with every ounce of their being, that if the situation were reversed you'd be done right now, right?  
  
This...  
  
This...  
  
This was so screwed up.  
  
**This was so screwed up.  
**  
Why!? Why do something like this! Yeah, maybe you got robbed if Liz was right but...  
  
But now look at you.  
  
Look at what you did...  
  
Your mind rolled in your head as it tried to comprehend the magnitude of all of this...  
  
...  
  
The beating of blades in the air almost didn't reach your ears from the vertigo you were putting yourself through.  
  
Still, your heard them. Your ears perked up as your head snapped up, looking over in the direction you heard the source of the noise. Your heart stopped, remembering Ned's words... oh man. No way, no way. You couldn't even get long into your denial when you say it; a police helicopter roared out from another street, immediately heading up 6th Avenue your way at a good clip of speed. Your shoulders slumped at the side of it as you heard radio chatter on the other side.  
  
_"Ground units, we have no sight of the suspect in the air, what is your status?"  
_  
You turned your head back towards a police officer, a walkie talkie at his side blaring to life. The officer's eyes met yours as he reached for his walkie talkie. That frustration, that fear, that confusion, it just gave away as he winced in pain and brought the device up to his lips.  
  
"This is Tanner... primary suspect's been pinned to the ground and is secure... vigilante known as Spider-Man is on the scene and still live at the collapsed yellow balloon. Ground units will pick up Vulture, Bird is advised to pursue the vigilante."  
  
_"Roger."  
_  
...  
  
Oh man.  
  
This one wasn't surprised. It was exhausted... it was tired.  
  
Because you winced at your aching knuckles, the cut at your side, your sore muscles from the sheer effort expended to get over here so fast and the effort you put yourself through in order to avoid Vulture's attacks and attack back.  
  
You were tired...  
  
But you couldn't exactly let that stop you.  
  
Time for you to split while the splitting was good.

Okay, come on Parker, think of something clever, something witty to say before departing.  
  
...  
  
"Hey uh... I'd hate to leave so soon but I think I left a turkey in the oven! Gotta go deal with that, uh, Happy Thanksgiving!"  
  
...  
  
Okay good enough!  
  
You quickly fired out a line of Webbing as you started swinging immediately, doing your best to cover as much ground as you could in as many swings as you could force your body to go through in order to get the Hell out of here. Of course, you weren't a fool; if Vulture was capable of covering way more ground than you could've hoped to in order to keep up with him, than a fully made helicopter was sure to be able to cover enough ground to catch up with you almost immediately. Sure enough as soon as you got swinging those beating blades of the police helicopter began to beat harder and hard as the noise rose up from behind you. It wasn't exactly a great feeling to have your first police chase follow your first supervillain bust but, hey, that probably came with the territory of being a daytime, public vigilante.  
  
"Fellas please, I just cleaned up the Vulture and handed him to you on a silver plate! Am I really your number one priority right now?" They couldn't hear you of course, and you didn't even know if people below you could hear you. However, your words... well, they kept you calm. Kept you light. Kept you from overthinking all of this too much. You needed to focus in on escaping, not how rough this situation was. Because, hoo boy, was it rough. All this movement wasn't letting your wound at your side rest, leaving you wincing and gasping every few swings as you twisted your body in just the wrong way to really aggravate the gash in your side. Not to mention that clenching your fists around your Webbing was really reminding you of how badly you bruised your knuckles. To be fair though, everything kind of hurt, a given considering just how hard you'd been pushing yourself for the past half hour at least.  
  
However, you had to put all of that behind you; you needed to think about getting away. As you passed by the Rockefeller Center with the helicopter still on your ass and getting much, much closer, you confirmed for yourself what you, on some level, already knew; you weren't outrunning a helicopter. That just wasn't happening. It was faster than you and no amount of ground you covered in your swings was going to get you away from it. So you had to think smarter than that, think around what advantage you did have over the helicopter; you were a lot smaller and you were a lot more maneuverable than it. In a crowded, dense place like Manhattan, the helicopter didn't have a lot of room to maneuver compared to you, especially if you kept your little chase with it low to the ground. Even if it did ascend that would just present opportunities for you to duck it here and there and break line of sight.  
  
That was the obvious tactic too; breaking line of sight by moving into someplace nice, tight and that the helicopter couldn't directly chase you into, thus allowing you to buy some time. Boy howdy, did New York have plenty of spots like that around Manhattan for you to make use of. As you passed by another large open block and kept swinging, you kept your eyes peeled through your goggles. Whatever you went you'd have to make it count; once you got the helicopter to fly up it'd probably stay there for the duration of the chase... and you only had so much Web Fluid left in both of your cartridges before you'd need to reload with the fresh one in your pockets. If they could keep above you and keep you on sight, then they'd be able to just run you down-  
  
***zzzzzRIIIIIInnnnggggg*  
**  
You heard the bean bag soar through the air a few feet off of you before your Spider Sense went off, lightly alerting you to a threat coming up from behind. As part of a swing you pushed yourself up and into the air, doing a backflip over the second bean bag that had been fired at you.  
  
"Hey! You can't shoot at me! I'm an American Spider and I know my rights! Don't you need, like, a warrant or to read me my rights before you start shooting at me?!"  
  
Okay, run you down or eventually just get lucky and land enough of these bean bags to bring you down. They had options, you didn't necessarily have them. So you needed to make this line of sight break count if you were going to get away quick. Otherwise you were probably in it for a much longer haul until you could find a suitable line of sight break to let you get away from someone so high up in the air.  
  
Soon enough your moment arrived; the next block was one of Manhattan's more typical ones; numerous well-sized buildings packed tightly together into one block, a series of departments and other little stores packed in good together, leaving only a winding, narrow series of alleys and one parking lot between them all. Perfect, just what you were looking for. You quickly took a dive down, the helicopter attempting to follow you as you fired off a line of Webbing onto the roof of one of the nearby buildings. You did your best to keep your momentum heading in a straight line, not wanting to crash into the walls of the alley, but that proved difficult when you also had to hop, skip, jump and avoid various little hazards that dotted it; a series of ladders and fire escapes that were likely mandated for safety reasons proved to be a pretty unsafe obstacle for you to avoid while also trying to not smash your face against a brick wall with how cramped the alley was...  
  
However, you accomplished your goal. Because if the alley was cramped for you it was utterly impossible for the police helicopter to get into. So it did exactly what you knew it'd do; it stopped just before the building and started to fly up, looking to get good height in order to spot you from an upward vantage point. However, doing so burned time for them, time you could use to quickly slip out of sight and away from them. As you swung through the alleys, taking a tight turn as you did so, you spotted your perfect opportunity. A grated fire escape, several platforms connected by flights of metal stairs, that went down the side of one of the department stores. Literally couldn't have asked for something better... well, unless it was solid steal but, you know. Beggars, choosers and what have you. You quickly swung in and, slowing down on your approach, you jumped off your Webline and stuck the landing onto the guardrail, jumping off of it and doing a flip through the air so that you could press your back up against the floor a level above you on the fire escape...  
  
Good Lord, the metal was cold. You winced as your skin stung like Hell in contact with the metal, even through your gloves and clothes. The metal had absorbed a lot of cold and you were getting the full brunt of it, making you shiver even as you did your best to hide. Hopefully, hopefully, your best would be good enough as the police helicopter approached from above...  
  
It was a quiet standoff, you and the helicopter. Just the sound of your breathing and the beating of its metal blades in the air keeping it hovering above the alleys that you'd ducked into. The metal grating would, hopefully, mostly obscure you from sight, even if it was likely they had a camera to zoom in on a lot of spots. You just had to hope that the human that had to work with those tools wouldn't see you, wouldn't spot you. That he'd go away, the sooner the better. Being away from home, from your Thanksgiving Dinner, was rough... even rougher knowing that you'd paid witness to a man ruining his own family's Thanksgivings from this day on till his last.  
  
What was Adrian Toomes thinking? What could've possessed him to do this?  
  
Those thought still rang in your head, even as you tried so hard to squelch them so that you could focus in on the helicopter above. Though it surely was only seconds that passed, it felt like an eternity to you as you felt yourself sweat this situation out.  
  
Leave. Please. Just leave.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You watch as the police officer on the side of the helicopter radios in, causing your heart to dip almost immediately. However that fear is replaced by relief as the helicopter immediately begins heading South, likely trying to continue the pursuit. You don't jump out immediately like an idiot. In fact, you take the time that the helicopter seems to be leaving to quickly adjust your revolvers, switching over to the other cartridges you had loaded up. Sure, they were mostly empty too, but they were less empty than the ones you'd spent so much of on the Vulture. Chances were good at least that you wouldn't run out on the way to your backpack if you had, indeed, made your escape.  
  
You waited...  
  
And waited...  
  
Until finally the helicopter seemed far off into the distance. You quickly ascended up the fire escape to take a peek and, sure enough, the copter was long gone by this point, scouting out other buildings much further to the South from you. You sighed in relief as you shook your head, forcing yourself up onto the ceiling as you sigh again. Man... you're _beat...  
_  
"One fight in the sky per day is about enough for me, thank you very much." You say as part of a heavy sigh, rolling out your shoulders as you wince at how taut and sore your muscles are from the stress and the cold air.  
  
Still, nothing to do about it for right now other than to get back to your backpack. You could hear police sirens in the distance; likely picking up the Vulture... and more likely centering in around where you were last spotted to check for you. Wouldn't do you any good to dodge the helicopter if you ended up being caught by police on the ground because you stuck around too long. You quickly jumped and fired off a line of Webbing, looking to move through Manhattan as quickly as you could.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Eventually, you do finally get back to the rooftop you left your backpack. To your immense relief it's still there, connected by the Webbing you'd left tying it to the building. You quickly walked over and, snapping the Webbing, you pulled out your smart phone and started to look through it... messages from Ned, no surprise. You had one from Aunt May and Uncle Ben asking if you'd arrived safely which, hey, you were quick to answer in the affirmative. No need to have them worry...  
  
Yeah, leave that to if they see you in what condition you're in. You winced as you take off your gloves for a moment to look over the damage; dark red bruises on your knuckles from the punches against Vulture's feathers, a slight amount of blood on them from where the skin had probably broken thanks to the hit. You put those gloves back on before peeling up your costume's sweatshirt, wincing as you do so; the cut was still there and it still looked gnarly. A lot of dried blood had caked around it and it looked like it was genuinely trying to seal up multiple times... but, well, you'd been pretty busy in your chase.  
  
You looked through Ned's messages again; he'd been watching everything go down on what few news orgs were still recording everything and through the website you two listened to the police comms over. He knew you'd gotten away but he was worried about the hit you took...  
  
Yeah, so were you. Not because you were worried about your health, Healing Factor would take care of that after a few days... but, well, because you were trying to wrap your mind around how you were going to get away with this. How were you gonna by yourself the time you needed or, Heck, just sneak back to your house without getting caught. You really did want to get back for Thanksgiving, after all but... man, you'd have to be smart about it... either that or just wait most of the day out.  
  
Which sounded rough. Smart, but rough. You weighed your various options as you considered what you were gonna do.

...  
  
Okay.  
  
This was gonna suck.  
  
You quickly swapped back to your other cartridge, the one you'd been using to swing over this way basically all but empty save for perhaps a few more lines. You winced as you lifted your sweatshirt up again, feeling it peel off your blood caked skin. You folded your sweatshirt up underneath your armpit and then reached down with a free hand, wincing as you closed up the lightly bleeding wound with your hands just so. You then took aim with your other Web Shooter.  
  
Okay Parker, deep breaths.  
  
You fire and wince as the Webbing impacts your skin. Sure enough though, the intended effect hits as you can feel your Webbing glomp over your closed up wound, packing in around it as you layer it on. After a bit you stop firing, shuddering as you reach down to rub the Webline onto your skin, flattening it out as best you can with your strength. The Webbing doesn't start turning red and you don't feel your body immediately react in pain when you move around so you consider that good enough; a makeshift bandage to help you get back to Queens so that you can let your Healing Factor kick in. You quickly send a message to Ned; you were fine, you slipped away from the police and you were checking yourself over. You needed to burn some time to heal before you went back home though, so if the two of you could meet up that would be great.  
  
While you awaited Ned's reply you went about quickly reloading your Web Shooter, dumping the two mostly empty cartridges into your pockets and replacing them with your last full ones. Judging by how much you had from your trip, this should get you back to Queens no problem. Just as you snap the second cartridge into place Ned responds; sure, he's willing to meet up and help you stall for time. You nod as you wince again, sending him a message to find some kind of coffee shop that would, hopefully, be open.  
  
...  
  
God was anything actually open on Thanksgiving? You never really thought about that. Nonetheless Ned gave you a ring back saying he'd look around for a spot that was open. You nodded as you put your sweatshirt back down, finally, letting the cold air help your Webbing bandage sit for long enough. With a grunt of exertion you get back to swinging, fresh Webbing from your new cartridges firing out as you quickly crossed Manhattan... though, not as quickly as you'd come. You had to take it a bit slower for the sake of your side and the bandage. Still, even with your backpack on, how tired you were and how sore you were all over you were able to make pretty good time just swinging through the skyline of Manhattan. You kept your phone in your pocket just in case Ned sent you a message for a meet up.  
  
God, you were tired. You didn't think a supervillain fight could be so exhausting but, hey, surprise surprise. When you didn't go up against some losers with a gun and a chip on their shoulder and actually had to stack up with someone who could fight back, it was a bit more of a thing to do. Still though, you'd come out on top, saved some people and even managed to get away from the cops. It was all a pretty good little coup, if you did say so yourself...  
  
Even if you did feel crummy about it being Liz's dad.  
  
It still shocked you, right to your core; you full well expected that it would've been someone working for Toomes to be the Vulture. That would've made some kind of sense. After all, he was an engineer; he could design the stuff for someone more suited to actually getting out there to do damage. It wouldn't have been great but still at least he would've had a layer of separation...  
  
At least he wouldn't have been crazy enough to terrorize innocent people in the name of getting back at Norman Osborn. Heck, who even knew if Osborn even actually stole from him at this point. After all, while Liz believing her father was understandable because, you know, _he was her dad_ you can't exactly trust the word of a guy crazy enough to go out in a metal bird suit to start dropping civilians out of the sky...  
  
Okay, you were half a hypocrite on that considering your own costumed status but you weren't hurting innocent people.  
  
Ah God.  
  
This situation was so fucked.  
  
Still...  
  
Either way? You stood by what you did. Even if Toomes was right, even if Osborn did steal from him, this wasn't right. Kidnapping his daughter too, if he was behind that, was wrong and if Osborn was behind that he should face jail time (and, to be frank, you had an easier time accepting that Osborn might do that; he was the only reasonable party to want to organize that after all). Even putting all that together... it didn't justify what Toomes was doing back there. It didn't justify how far he was willing to go.  
  
...  
  
That still didn't make your own guilt about what his family was about to go through any easier. Then again, why were you only feeling guilty about it just now? The other crooks that you'd helped put away surely had families of their own. Why feel bad about putting Toomes down when you didn't even blink at the idea of throwing drug dealers in jail? They probably had families too, right?  
  
It was hard to swallow that it was just because you didn't know someone in their family. Heck, putting everything into this perspective made you more and more frustrated with Toomes; he wasn't that much better than the crooks you'd already put away, after all. Still, you had to be honest with yourself; you felt ill at ease because Toomes was someone you respected as an engineer, whereas those drug dealers were just that, drug dealers... and because you knew his daughter...  
  
Well.  
  
Not you Peter Parker.  
  
Well.  
  
I mean technically you _knew_ her but it wasn't like you all were friends.  
  
Barely even acquaintances really...  
  
Wait, no, you didn't-  
  
***Yodeling*  
**  
Oh thank you Ned.  
  
You snap out of your thought as you pull out your smartphone mid swing, taking a look down it. 8710 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights huh? Well that wasn't too, too far off from the bridge you were crossing, you guessed. Wouldn't' even be that terribly far from home. All you had to do was jump down into an alley, change into your civvies, and then walk the rest of the way to this meetup.  
  
You wondered what Ned had ended up finding.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"... You don't like breakfast?"  
  
Ned snapped you out of your confusion as you blinked, watching as he put down his forkful of scrambled eggs. You looked around at the two, long buffets that were spread out in the middle of the restaurant, the interior of which was a very folksy wood and brick layout that kind of reminded you of a lodge. A bit of carpet was under your normal sneakers as you did your best to keep your big old sweatshirt loose off of your side; no use letting that stain before your Healing Factor properly healed up. Same reason you kept your hands inside your sleeves for now. You were actually hoping your waitress would come by with more water; you'd already sneaked about all the ice in your glass out from there to keep on your knuckles inside your sleeves, after all, and most of it was melted.  
  
"Oh no man, I do it's just... a Denny's, really?"  
  
The homey atmosphere did warm you chilled out bones, you had to admit... though maybe that was the heating running through the building. Ned just nodded as he set his fork down to the side as he looked at you.  
  
"Yeah man. Sorry, I kept looking for like coffee shops or something but most of them close at around 3:00 and most of the ones I was looking at were in the process of closing up shop already. So I looked around for some place that actually stays open on Thanksgiving." You nodded your head, you supposed that was sensible enough. "Plus I didn't get to eat before leaving man. I'm hungry..."  
  
...  
  
You weren't gonna lie, you were actually really hungry too and pretty much for that exact same reason. Heck your stomach was growling at this point. Before the two of you could continue, however, you were quickly interrupted.  
  
"Heeeeey!" Your waitress came back, tray in hand as she put out another couple glasses of water for you and Ned. "You fellas enjoying yourself?"  
  
"Oh yeah, foods great." Ned said while you just gave a polite smile.  
  
"What brings you two boys here anyway? Thanksgiving's today, isn't it?" She asked, causing you to blink as you tried to come up with your own excuse on the fly.  
  
"It's... been a rough year for my friend here. His folks are... you know, going through a rough divorce." Ned starts acting solemn and, by God, while Ned was by no means giving a star-studded performance, he sure was giving this waitress the business.  
  
"Oh nooo." She said as Ned just nodded sadly.  
  
"Yeah, figured I'd go ahead and hang out with him until the fighting died down later tonight. You know, be there for my friend." The young woman turned to look at you as you just did your best to give her the sad eyes before glancing down to the side.  
  
"You poor thing. You're sure you don't want anything? I can add you to the check if you like?"  
  
...  
  
Well...

As the waitress left with her sympathies firmly in your hands you couldn't help but glance over at Ned with a bemused smile.  
  
"Hey, I had to come up with something on the fly man." He said as he took a bite out of his eggs while you just raised your hands.  
  
"Hey man I'm not judging. That was quick thinking." You both chuckled a bit at that as you both sat there, sighing a bit as the silence returned.  
  
...  
  
"So... how are you holding up Pete?"  
  
"I mean you saw my knuckles. They hurt a bit but it's nothing too bad, and I figure my side-"  
  
"Well yeah, obviously that stuff too but... I mean, you know. How you feeling about your first big bust and all?" You see Ned grins a bit, obviously giddy himself as he considers the prospect of your first supervillain fight. "Man, you should've seen it from our point of view dude. Sure it was shaky and all and far away but, man, with you guys just swinging and flying and crashing around. That looked pretty sweet... a little scary too, especially when... you know." Ned pointed back down to your side while he whispered, giving you time to nod.  
  
Yeah, you knew.  
  
How were you feeling, anyway?

"... Ned... oh man Ned, it's so screwed up..." You muttered as he combed a hand through your hair, wincing ever so slightly as you did so.  
  
"Want to talk about it?" Ned asked casually as he took another bite of his food... which just got your stomach to growl even harder.  
  
"I kinda do, I guess... but first... I think you made me pretty hungry myself. Might pick up some food... and, you know, clean myself up a little bit." You quickly waved over your waitress, the young woman wandering over. You asked for a separate receipt so that you could order a buffet for yourself which the young woman was all too happy to oblige you with. You then, awkwardly, asked if you could have, like, a small bag of ice for yourself. She seemed a bit confused by the sudden ask but she shrugged, telling you she'd get right on that while you were free to start eating from the buffet. You nodded as she walked off and then headed off to the restroom, leaving Ned alone for the moment.  
  
"Anything to drink?"  
  
"Uh... soda would be nice, I guess!" You called back over to the waitress who nodded and jotted it down on her pad, before slipping off into the bathroom.  
  
Okay, better make this quick and try not to make a mess of yourself. You quickly walked over to a paper towel dispenser and just started rolling out long lengths of the stuff into your hands. You'd need a lot, that was for sure. You ripped the rough stack you had in half and doused half of the paper towels in warm water underneath the sink before walking yourself into a nearby bathroom stall. From there was the slow and occasionally painful process off scrubbing the caked on blood off of your side, wincing every time you got close to the cut. It took work, even with the warm water you'd doused the paper towels in, and a lot of the blood soaked water ended up dribbling onto the floor and toilet but, eventually, you'd pretty well scrubbed your side clean. The Webbing you still had at your side was holding back any new bleeding, if there was any bleeding at all, so you heaved a small sigh of relief as that seemed to be the end of it. You dried yourself off and cleaned up the stall before dumping the used up paper towels into the toilet and flushed them down.  
  
On the plus side you didn't smell quite so coppery anymore, especially after you washed your hands so thoroughly.  
  
From there... oh man you pretty much just let your stomach guide you as you start piling food onto a plate. It being Thanksgiving the Denny's had a bit of a theme going so there were plenty of Thanksgiving foods piled on alongside their normal breakfast offerings. You didn't want to eat too much Thanksgiving stuff, after all you wanted Aunt May's delicious dinner, so you mostly stuck to breakfast... but you couldn't help but pile on some nice, thick clumps of mashed potato, taking a nice slice of butter to let melt on top of the steaming pile. From there you just went ham on the breakfast; thick, glistening links of sausage, scalloped potatoes with ab it of cheese melted over top of them and pepperoni cut in, golden scrambled eggs so fluffy and light it was like hoisting air onto a plate. You even grabbed a bit of french toast, taking a small little bowl from the buffet and dribbling some thick, warm maple syrup into it.  
  
By the time you went back to your table Ned had gone back for his own second plate, the robust young man guffawing as he saw your own plate stacked so thoroughly.  
  
"Man, who'da thunk that swinging around like that would build up an appetite?" Ned whispered with a chuckle as you just nodded slightly.  
  
"I know man, I didn't get much to eat back home either and... jeez, starving." You quickly bit into a sausage link, feeling it pop and sizzle beneath your teeth as you let the flavor sink in. It might've been Denny's food, sure, but right now it could've been a breakfast served at a five star restaurant and you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. You felt famished.  
  
Still, as your hunger abated after eating some, which Ned was kind enough to let happen in silence while you filled some of your stomach, other thoughts returned. Ned seemed to notice the turn in your demeanor back down to grim as he slowed down his own eating, waiting to see what you'd have to say. It took you a moment to put everything together... and in the end you just had to start with what was eating at you the most.  
  
"Ned... the Vulture... it was Liz's dad, Ned." You watch as Ned's eyes go wide with surprise, the young man bringing a napkin up to his face as he choked and coughed in surprise, you hear him roughly swallow as he tossed the napkin to the side.  
  
"Holy shit, no way." Ned whispered, face still marred by disbelief as you nodded. You took the next several minutes to explain the entire situation to Ned; Adrian Toomes, his company, what Liz told you he'd said, what you'd put together he'd actually done... to the scene you arrived on at 6th Avenue. To unmasking him and finding that underneath the terrifying exterior of the Vulture was... well... a man. A man you knew about and admired, to some degree.  
  
"Dude... how are you feeling about that, man?" Ned asked as he set his fork down to the side, too engrossed in the conversation to really keep eating at the moment.  
  
"I dunno man... I mean, I'm glad I stopped him for sure but... agh. I feel guilt, Ned. I feel guilty because Liz... I mean, how can someone do something like that to their own daughter? Put so much at risk, do such terrible things, knowing that their family might have to live with the consequences of it?" You shook your head. "She didn't even want to believe it was him... so that makes me feel guilty about feeling guilty in the first place because, you know, I did the right thing."  
  
"Yeah, you totally did the right thing." Ned agreed immediately, and without question or even a hint of doubt on his face, as you nodded your head harder.  
  
"Yeah; he was going to seriously hurt someone if I didn't stop him... who knows, he might've killed Norman Osborn, and then there'd be two people we know who'd have their fathers just... ugh." Considering that Harry Osborn didn't seem like a singularly strong person, even to you, you could only imagine how devastated the poor guy would've been if Norman bit it at the hands of the Vulture. "So I shouldn't feel bad about this at all, you know?" Ned nodded at that, though you couldn't help but deflate, despite your rhetoric. "So... fuck man, I just feel... tired. Tired because I do feel bad and tired because Adrian Toomes is such a dumb asshole to pull something like this." You ran your hands through your hair. "... I might also be tired literally too... because _maaan..._ I'm exhausted." You tiredly pawed at the bag of ice the waitress had left for you, pressing it against your knuckles in turn whenever one set got too cold.  
  
The swelling had seriously gone down in the midst of your eating and discussion and the bruises, under the influence of the ice, had lightened up, but it was still quite apparent that you'd bruised them at some point... and the pain that echoed from them was a constant reminder of that as well. Ned nodded along with your statement, the young man's face turned into a grimace as he quickly took a bite of food to buy himself some time to think.  
  
"... I mean... I think I get it Pete. You feel bad; not because you did something wrong, but because... you know, Liz is probably gonna be really upset. There's no avoiding that... and you feel bad for her cause... ya know, you're not a dick like her dad." You nodded at that, taking a deep breath as you did so. "Still, I think you need to give yourself a break in that case; like you said, you didn't do anything wrong... I mean, technically we both did something wrong by getting you to that point of being a vigilante but that doesn't count." You snorted at that as Ned nodded firmly. "Point is that you couldn't have stopped this from happening one way or the other Pete. You made sure it didn't get worse and you put a dangerous lunatic behind bars. You shouldn't feel bad about Liz; you're not the one who put the costume on Toomes... heck, it's more like the other way around, isn't it?"  
  
Yeah, you guessed that was true; if Toomes hadn't attacked Oscorp that day you would've never become Spider-Man. Never would've had your superpowers... the very same superpowers that ended up thrashing Toomes and saving Norman Osborn's life. Put into that perspective, it was almost kind of funny. You even laughed out loud at that before sighing.  
  
"... Thanks for coming Ned. I probably would've been worse off if I was just on my own right now." You see Ned smile at this as he nods, plopping some more eggs into his mouth.  
  
"Dude, didn't I tell you I was your Guy in The Chair? I gotchu." You both chuckle at that as you continue eating for a bit.  
  
"... What am I even going to do about Aunt May or Uncle Ben? Everything else I can keep covered up at this point but my hands?" You winced as you looked at your hands; like you'd thought before, the ice helped, but it was still pretty clear that they'd been dinged up quite a bit. Ned just nodded as he pulled out his smartphone, hitting a few buttons on it as he brought up his text messager.  
  
"You ask me? We should send them a message; you tripped avoiding some kid or something, fell onto the concrete or a brick wall. Didn't open up your hands and so you went down knuckles first. I mean, that happens right?" You shrugged at that... well, actually.  
  
"Yeah, I guess when I was a lot more clumsy and tripped more often that happened a couple times." You reach up for your fake glasses, the reminder of that old identity, that... well, 'Puny' Parker that you still carried around to keep people from looking at the sudden superhuman funny. "You think they'd buy it?" You asked, curious, as Ned smiled.  
  
"If I send them a message saying it happened and that we're stopping off to get you some ice, I don't see why it wouldn't." You can't help but snort at that, watching as Ned clicked away at his phone's screen as he composed the message.  
  
"... You know, you're a little too into lying to my legal guardians there Ned. Something you want to tell me?" You couldn't help but snicker at that as Ned gave you a look.

  
"Hey man, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Guy in The Chair code says I have to get good at lying like this to give you cover... the fact that it's kind of funny to come up with this stuff doesn't exactly hurt either." Ned said with a slight chuckle as he sent the message. A few moments later Aunt May and Uncle Ben reply, giving a quick 'okay'. Not long after a message hits your own phone as you bring it up.  
  
_"Sorry for messaging you like this Peter, you don't have to respond if it's too painful to! Take what time you need, we'll have a nice big old bag of ice ready for you when you get back!"  
_  
It was from Aunt May but the wording at the end sounded more like something Uncle Ben would direct her to add. You smiled lightly at that... as much as it did suck to lie to them, that your family so immediately jumped to thinking of how to help you out when you got back really did warm your heart.  
  
"They're way too good for me..." You said with a laugh as Ned shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Hey, parents right?" The two of you nodded as you continued eating and drinking your sodas. You were intent on staying for about an hour before heading back home, giving your healing factor some time to kick in while you relaxed. Eventually both of you had your fill, though you could still feel a bit of hunger at the periphery of your mind even after you stopped eating; your Healing Factor must've been chewing through calories like it was no one's business. Eventually you and Ned left the Denny's and, after spending some time chatting with each other, parted ways so you both could head back to your respective homes.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


You ended up crossing through the threshold of your house; the lack of cars or even much noise inside told you that most people had cleared out. A few people were still hanging around but the party atmosphere had definitely died out. Figures that seeing a supervillain attack on the news might kill the mood a bit. You closed the door behind you, cautiously, as you took a head count to see who all were still here. While some of them were just acquaintances, you noticed a few faces still quite apparent in the crowd of people.

"... Come on Liz, pick up the phone..." You wince slightly as you looked around the living room. While Flash's mom was busy dealing with her younger son and just generally trying to talk it out with a few of the remaining adults in the room, Flash Thompson was on the near opposite side of the room as he paced about. His smartphone was in hand, the barely audible ringtone of it reaching your ears as Flash continued to wait out the rings, hoping that, apparently, Liz would pick up her phone. You watched in some discomfort as Flash grumbles, bringing the phone down and canceling the call, the last thing heard from his phone being what sounded like a voicemail message. He quickly punched in the commands and, once again, the call was placed...  
  
Ouch. You did your best to hide your wince behind your face as you rubbed your arm. It wasn't much of a surprise to you that Flash knew who Liz's dad was; you imagined that anyone who dated for any amount of time would figure out a detail like that sooner or latter. That the news was quick to report on who exactly was behind all of this wasn't that much of a surprise either; the Vulture had been a curiosity since his attack on Oscorp and having it turn out to be a head of an engineering company with military contracts with the US government? Man, that was probably all kinds of juicy for any news organization to report on. So it was probably all over New York at this point... which means that not only did Flash know it, Liz probably did as well...  
  
Which... yeah, did make the fact that Liz apparently wasn't picking up her phone really worrying. You heaved a long sigh as you ran a hand through your hair, looking over at Flash. You probably wouldn't get much headway out of this... but... darn your good upbringing. Aunt May and Uncle Ben raised you too well. You had to at least offer your sympathies to Flash if nothing else. So you took care to tighten yourself up and walk over to Flash; you knew you were bound to get an earful, after all, an emotionally distressed Flash Thompson wasn't the most friendly Flash Thompson around... but, well, you were used to getting an earful from Flash from time to time. Kind of came with the territory of your relationship and his hazing, really.  
  
You saw a few of Flash's friends watch you approach him, an iffy expression on their faces as you did so as most of them were keeping their distance. Still, you soldiered through it as you walked up to the blond athlete.  
  
"... Hey there Flash." You mumbled, causing Flash to glance over at you. He'd been so focused in on his phone that it seems like he hadn't even noticed your approach. When he saw you the worry on his face was... well, it wasn't replaced. It was still there and very apparent. However, now joining that worry was a slight sense of annoyance... but muted annoyance.  
  
"Parker." You hear him say; it's not low or a growl but it is just a tiny bit harsh as Flash actually did grumble once the line cut to Liz's voicemail again. "Anything you want in specific there Parker or are you just hear to hover around?" Well at least he wasn't throwing out names or Puny Parker, that was a good sign at least.  
  
"I guess the former?" You respond awkwardly as you scratch the back of your head. "Listen, Flash... just wanted to come over and offer my... you know, my sympathies. All things considered, it's been... a pretty rough month... you know, for you and Liz." While you definitely knew that as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, thankfully, Peter Parker was very much aware of some of the trouble at least... and Flash knew it. So you were somewhat grateful when, as annoyed as Flash looked, he didn't seem more annoyed by your statement. Instead he just groaned, rubbed the bridge of his nose and nodded.  
  
"This is fucked up Parker. That Vulture freak that got you and Lee crying like babies-"  
  
"H-Hey, only Ned was crying-" You try to save yourself as Flash just ignored you.  
  
"-turns out to be Liz's old man? After all the crap she already got put through? Heck, maybe that was even his fault and... agh. Now she's not picking up her phone so I can't even talk to her about it! It's driving me nuts!" Flash plugged the numbers back into his phone again. "If it wasn't for Spider-Man and..." Flash glanced over at you for a moment. He didn't say anything, but you could tell what he was thinking of; that day you were there to call for help for Liz, "-and... you know, all of this would've been so much worse. Who knows what would've happened to Liz and who knows what would've happened to her dad if he kept this stupid crap up..."  
  
"Y-Yeah, who knows." You preferred not to think about it too hard, given the stakes involved, especially with Toomes' attack on the parade. It could've gone a lot worse if it wasn't for you in both cases. So at least you weren't being blamed for all this so... hey, good sign there. Then again, this was Flash. Who knew how Liz felt. "So you know... like I said, just wanted to come over and... ya know?"  
  
"Right. Whatever, thanks I guess." Flash said as he redialed the number, bringing it back up to his ears. "Now could you buzz off Parker? If Liz answers I don't want you breathing over my shoulder." You nod at that as you raise your hands defensively, backing off from Flash as he went back to focusing on his phone. You glanced over at Flash's friends, Randy having gotten up at some point while you were moving away from Flash in order to meet you part of the way.  
  
"Pretty brave of ya there, Parker." Randy said, hands in the pockets of his coat as you just nodded.  
  
"Well... I mean, I heard it on the news while Ned and I were out. Alert came over my phone and everything. So I figured... you know, with everything else that went on..." Rand nodded his head.  
  
"Right on, right on. Flash probably ain't got a mind to show too much of it, but QB'll probably appreciate it... you know, in a while. After all this."  
  
"Yeah, I get that." You mumbled as you awkwardly scratched at the back of your head. Randy just smiled as he slapped you across the back, you faking that the blow actually sent you forward.  
  
"Pretty upstanding of ya considering all the haze QB gives ya. You're alright Parker." You smile a bit at that.  
  
"Ah, thanks Rand." The taller fella just nods his head as he goes back to join the rest of his compatriots. In the meantime, you notice that by now Aunt May and Uncle Ben have seen ya and are ushering you over to the kitchen. Welp; time to face the music, you guess. You nodded and walked over to the kitchen, Uncle Ben immediately pressing a hand to your shoulder as he gave ya a wink.  
  
"Well sport, seems like you're trying to stick around for just everybody today, huh?" What, how does he... oh right, your excuse to run after Ned on top of what you just did for Flash.  
  
"What can I say Uncle Ben, your attitude's infectious." You say with a joking smile as Uncle Ben just nodded his head, a small bit of laughter in his throat as Aunt May reached forward, grabbed your wrists and pulled back your sleeves to reveal your hands. Your ice regimen had done a lot to reduce the swelling and bruising, to such a degree that it honestly looked like it matched the incident. Considering your healing factor, you'd probably not see the swelling go back up to its previous levels either.  
  
"Oh, my poor boy. Look at this Ben." Aunt May presented Ben your knuckles, you Uncle taking a look as he himself winced.  
  
"Oof. Those don't look like they were fun to have. You've been icing them too for a bit, right Peter?" You nodded your head at that, going along with the story you and Ned had helped build up.  
  
"Yeah, totally. It's why Ned and I stopped for a while is so I could ice these for a bit. It didn't do too much but we didn't ice them for long." You said with a wince as Aunt May lightly pressed her thumb along one of the bruises.  
  
"Oh I'm sorry Peter. My goodness this must hurt... come over here. We've got a bag of ice ready for you." You nodded as you allowed yourself to be guided along to the dining room table, pulling up a seat and sitting down as Uncle Ben sat down next to you.  
  
"Mighty fine of you to check in with your friend and Flash like that Peter. Even if you were probably pretty worried yourself; after all, you went through that whole experience at Oscorp too." Your uncle nodded his head slowly at that as you nodded in agreement, Aunt May quickly fishing a bag of ice they'd left in the freezer out to place on your knuckles.  
  
"Yeah well-" You wince ever so slightly as the ice presses against your knuckles, "-it was the right thing to do. Besides, I wasn't that shaken up by the attack... just... you know, asthma attack." You muttered as your guardians nodded at that.  
  
"Well, we figured it'd be a shame if you missed out on the big feast because you were off doing a good deed. So we made sure that you'd have some food for when you got back." Aunt May said, quickly pulling a plate of dinner out of the microwave before setting it in front of you.  
  
"Course, we'll have a big old Thanksgiving Dinner later this evening too sport. If you'll have room for it." You smiled warmly at that as you nodded, picking up a fork as you did so. Honestly, even with everything you ate at Denny's, you were still really hungry... and probably would be again later into this evening.  
  
"Are you kidding, I'll always have room for Aunt May's Thanksgiving Dinner. You two know me better than that." You see your two guardians smile, Aunt May leaning down to kiss you on the cheek, much to your chagrin as you hoped nobody else saw that, as Uncle Ben warmly rubbed your shoulder.  
  
"We have to take care of the rest of the guests now Peter, so you just go ahead, enjoy your lunch and rest up for tonight." You nod at that, watching the two of them leave the dining room/kitchen before turning back to your plate of Thanksgiving Dinner, a warm feeling in your stomach and your heart...  
  
Okay sure. So the Vulture was a lunatic who ruined his life doing something crazy. Maybe you couldn't have stopped him from doing that. Maybe you were cut up, bruised and more than a little sore after everything that happened today. Maybe you did have to lie to your guardians... but, well, sitting here, feeling the warmth of your home and having spoken with Ned for that long hour... you couldn't help but feel a sense of relief rush over you. Maybe everything didn't go perfect today; your Thanksgiving Party got cut a bit short and so did your side. You still did good today, you still stopped someone from completely ruining their lives... you stopped someone from dying...  
  
And you still had people who appreciated your gestures like Randy... and if it was to be believed, Flash. You still had people who stuck by your side and boosted you up when you were wallowing in your own guilt, like Ned... and you still had people who loved you unconditionally like your Aunt May and Uncle Ben.  
  
So maybe today wasn't perfect. Maybe you still felt bad over what Toomes did.  
  
But hey; all things considered, you did a pretty good job...  
  
...  
  
And this bit of pumpkin pie was still pretty damn delicious...  
  
...  
  
You feel like you're forgetting something...  
  
...  
  
OH RIGHT! STUDYING YOUR BIOLOGY NOTES!


	26. Outtake 4: Caged

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock...  
  
The back and forth of the clock on the wall mirrored his own drumming fingers as he waited on the other side of some bullet-proof glass, the two-way phone line next to him still hanging up as he awaited his inevitable visitors. He'd been in this holding area for all of eight hours at this point; with his wings effectively clipped and his suit in storage in God knew who where, it was all a bit of a joke really. He was as fit and normal as any of them now, if not less so compared to many of the guards that now surrounded him. These precautions, the chains around his ankles that weighed him down so heavily, complete overkill. He guessed he must've truly terrified them then. Shook their sense of safety and their comfort with his actions for them to be treating him in such a manner.  
  
Who knew; maybe he succeeded in making Osborn shiver in those Goddamn Italian leather shoes of his in that case. That'd be about the only comfort he could take in all this mess...  
  
 _"We continue to report on the attack that occurred earlier today at the Thanksgiving Day Parade here in New York City. One Adrian Toomes, known now to be the man behind the Vulture, the strange being who had attacked Oscorp back in September of this year-"  
_  
A television broadcast the news in one of the corners of his side of the room. A way for the guards and prisoners waiting for their visitors to keep busy and distracted while that clock ticked on by. For the entire day the news had been wall to wall coverage of what he'd done, the terror he'd inflicted on Osborn and the others there. The guards and other prisoners, save for those guards meant to specifically keep close by him to ensure he behaved, gave him a wide berth, none sitting beside him and sparing him a look only when they thought he couldn't see him.  
  
Even in this completely powerless state, seeing this fear and the fear on the news made him feel like he wasn't quite so helpless. Who knew; maybe these people knew something he didn't. Maybe he really was still a threat; maybe if they let their guard down he could get back out there. Get back to making Osborn pay. It'd certainly be nice though if there was a way to accomplish that, Toomes couldn't see it at the moment. For now, he was just intent on waiting... where were they? Even with how long they would've needed to wait for approval, for him to be moved to this location, they should've been here by now. Maybe he was just getting anxious but... no, no he knew they should've been here by now. So...  
  
The door opened, causing Adrian's head to snap over. The slow plodding of footsteps were heard as, finally, his ex-wife and daughter entered the room. He exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding; finally. The man sat up straight, withdrawing his hand from the counter as he waited for them to notice him. Pulling the phone from his end, Toomes watched as his wife and daughter scanned the various booths and found him... whereupon his daughter's sight flinched from him, Liz balking at looking at him, while his ex-wife immediately stomped over to him. Liz followed up behind her, slowly, as Toomes watched the both of them carefully. His ex-wife damn near ripped the phone off of the booth and-  
  
"What the fuck were you thinking you Goddamn lunatic?"  
  
...  
  
"Good to hear you're in high spirits as usual Cheryl. Nice to see you too. I'm doing just fine, thanks for asking." Toomes rubbed the bridge of his nose, already feeling a headache coming on as the veins in his wife's neck throbbed. Oh, oh she was _angry.  
_  
"Don't give me that attitude Adrian, you don't have a Goddamn leg to stand on here. Now tell me what the fuck were you thinking? What the fuck was that suit, when did you have time to make it... whyyyy have you been terrorizing our daughter's friends and random people Adrian!?" Adrian rolled his eyes as he leaned forward.  
  
"First off, you know what I was thinking Cheryl, we've been talking about it for months." 'Jesus Fucking Christ' his ex-wife had muttered under her breath, running a hand over her face as Adrian kept looking forward, "As for the second, I think I'll have to skip over that for now; you've never been quite able to pick up on the intricacies of my work, after all."  
  
 ***BAM*  
**  
Adrian flew back in his seat, flinching for his life as his wife banged her phone against the glass, surprising him and the guards.  
  
"Ma'am-"  
  
"Sorry, sorry... just... my idiot ex-husband had the bright idea that being a smart ass was going to pay off for him." The guards blinked at that.  
  
"Wait, ex-husband?" Cheryl nodded slightly at that, the guards glancing at each other for a moment. "Damn lady you sure now how to pick 'em."  
  
"... Apparently..." Cheryl muttered as she sat back down, groaning to herself as she shook her head. "You know what Adrian?" Toomes had gotten himself back into a stable sitting position after his initial shock, his ex-wife just running a hand through her hair as she looked up at him. "I always knew you were obsessive. There was even a point in time where I almost admired that; a good work ethic my mom called it." Cheryl shook her head, Liz just hanging back behind her awkwardly as Cheryl seemed to be working herself up to a rant. "I should've figured something was wrong even before I divorced you. I should've _known_ something was definitely wrong when I did finally pick up the good sense to find someone who actually cared more about me than he did his own job."  
  
...  
  
Toomes, of course, didn't contest that point. After all, it was the truth. His work, his pursuit of his legacy, his craft, had meant more to him than Cheryl. He'd never lied about it either. The fact that he'd remained so silent when she'd lobbed this at him... for a moment, he could actually see a slight quiver in her lips before she took a deep breath.  
  
"I didn't though. I did not though. I guess even sane people can delude themselves if they try hard enough..." Cheryl took a deep breath as she stared at him dead on. "So tell me Adrian; when did you lose your Goddamn mind?" Adrian scoffed as his wife continued. "Was it a couple months ago? Like, did you just suddenly snap and decide you were gonna take a flight suit and go attack Oscorp? Was it when you were cooking up that fucking nonsense about your designs being stolen? Or was it when you started crowing about this bullshit Glider Tech at all?"  
  
Now it was Adrian's turn to slam his hand on the desk, causing Liz to jump as both adults stared each other down.  
  
"How dare you... I am **not** crazy Cheryl. I designed Glider Tech. It was **my** invention! I worked on it, my boys and I were working on it! We were going to have it out and then Oscorp stole it from us! Nothing about that is crazy Cheryl!"  
  
"Except for the part where the police found **nothing** , Adrian! Fucking _nothing!_ Then you took that nothing, traumatized half of our daughters friends and then nearly killed a whole bunch of people at a parade!" Toomes scoffed.  
  
"I wasn't anywhere near doing any such thing."  
  
 **"You were fucking dropping Oscorp employees out of the fucking sky you basket case!"  
  
"I AM NOT CRAZY!" **At this point several spaces had been cleared out, people getting away from the arguing divorced couple as they glared hatefully at each other from across the room. "They would have been fine Cheryl, you want to know why? Because I actually studied these things!"  
  
"Oh here we go; big bad Adrian Toomes with his degrees, lording his mighty intellect over me to show just how important he is and why he can't come home to do x, y or z with his daughter! Your fucking daughter Adrian, do you remember her? Were you thinking about her this morning when you flew off to attack random civilians on the street? Were you thinking about her when you started **dropping people to gruesomely injure them on live television?!"  
**  
"Of course I was thinking about her! With the wealth and fame I could get from Glider Tech, Liz wouldn't have to work a day in her life. I could've paid for everything off of what my work-"  
  
"Oh don't you fucking pawn this off like you're some father of the year for becoming some kind of domestic terrorist Adrian! This had **nothing** to do with Liz's future, otherwise you wouldn't have gone through with this fucking delusional scheme of yours driven by your own paranoid delusions!" Toomes grit his teeth; there were those words again. Paranoid, delusions, nonsense. He'd heard it all before from...  
  
"How much is Osborn paying you, Cheryl?!"  
  
"EXCUSE ME?!" Cheryl asked, genuinely affronted as Adrian pointed at her.  
  
"How much is Osborn paying you to run your lying mouth to discredit me Cheryl?!"  
  
"Discredit, what... LISTEN TO YOU! Me?! Discredit you!? Adrian Toomes, you went out and just randomly attacked completely innocent people for literally nothing more than whatever's lodged itself in your Goddamn head and... fucking Christ, how out of touch with reality are you? As if I could discredit you anymore than you've already discredited yourself?! You really have lost your fucking mind!" Cheryl laughed again, shaking her head as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Shouldn't surprise me though! Shouldn't surprise me one Goddamn little bit! I should've known! I said I should've known and I should've known! I don't even know why I came in here? You've clearly lost your marbles and lost them a long time ago, so why I don't even know why I'm here!"  
  
"Then leave. If all you're here to do is spout poison for Osborn then I don't need you here." Cheryl just stared at him for a good long moment, the mother of his child finally just nodding as she shook her head. She pressed the phone into the wall and got her bag, immediately walking off. Adrian groused and grit his teeth as he looked off to the side. Good riddance; so what if she had been bought in by Osborn. It wouldn't matter. He'd deal with that later. For now he-  
  
The sound of the phone being taken back off the hook drew his attention back to the booth where he saw Liz there, having moved forward. She didn't sit down like her mother had before, instead she just stood there, looking off to the side as his baby girl seemed to be trying to think of what to say. Adrian took a deep breath as he pressed his hand forward against the glass.  
  
"Liz, honey... you know I had to do all this, right?" Liz seemed to freeze at those words as Adrian continued. "I'll get him next time. This time didn't work out; I did my best to put an end to Osborn for us, to get him out of our lives for good. It'll work out next time."  
  
...  
  
Liz just stood there for a moment. So still and so quiet. A shaken breath left her chest as she glanced down at his hand, refusing to look him in the face.  
  
"Yeah... yeah I knew you had to do this. You always do." Adrian frowned slightly and, before he realized it, Liz hung up the phone on the side of the booth and ran off before he could say a word, Adrian Toomes frozen there as he watched his daughter follow his ex-wife out of the room.  
  
...  
  
"Looks like your time's up Toomes. Back to your cell." He just nodded, numb to his movements, as he hung up the phone. There were only two things he heard as he was slowly escorted out. The ticking of the clock...  
  
 _"-It is of course my great regret that all of this came about because of Mr. Toomes grudge against me. When Oscorp acquired the men behind the Glider Tech project, we had no idea that it would cause Mr. Toomes such great distress or that he would lash out in such a manner. While it may not be my fault that so many innocent people at the parade today were hurt, I still must take responsibility for my presence having put them at risk. Therefore, I'll see to it that their medical-"  
_  
... and the television.  
  
Osborn...  
  
 _"-Finally, still no word from the police on any capture of the vigilante known as The Spider-Man, despite a several hour long combing of Manhattan Island today. Police are unsure as to where exactly the youth seems to have slipped away, but according to one Captain-"  
_  
 **Spider-Man...  
**  
1/6


	27. Outtake 5: G185514

Sometimes he was sorely tempted to give into the vices of other men and pour himself a nice, cold drink.

It would've been smooth comfort for him as he ascended up the tower that housed his business, the business he'd built from the ground up, quite literally, over all these many years. Oscorp, the pharmaceutical powerhouse of the world which churned out revolutionary medicine and prosthetic that improved the lives of so many on a near yearly basis. The best and brightest minds in the fields of biology, chemistry and the sub-fields therein had been gathered in this building, now joined by experts in robotics and engineering.

All under him, Norman Osborn. It was a lot of any man to handle; the meetings, the plans, the business deals, the competition, the constant need to drive this behemoth of a corporation forward to new and greater heights. Lesser men might've given in to that temptation; it was no secret, after all, that Tony Stark drank and whored himself around as part of the 'billionaire bachelor' lifestyle he liked to flaunt. However, Norman Osborn would not give in like Stark would; his mind needed to be focused and razor sharp at all times. After all, his daddy hadn't given him a business fully formed with which to run into the ground like Stark had when he closed down his weapons division. No. Where men like Stark were born rich, Norman had been born poor. Where Stark had the best teachers available for him from the moment he could walk, Norman had to scrape out his education, scrape out his skills.

If he had let smaller concerns weigh him down while he rose to be the cream of the crop, Norman wouldn't be here. He wouldn't have the success that he'd forged for himself. Still, days like these made that temptation worse than other days. Made the pounding in his head far more vicious. Because today he'd just been narrowly saved from Adrian Toomes by a child in a costume playing superhero...

Today Norman Osborn had a small brush with death. All without having even seen it coming.

As the elevator doors opened to his office, the scarlet hair man reflected; it was all supposed to be so simple. Another business deal in the long line of business deals that Oscorp had gone through. Through the grapevine of his network, Osborn had been made aware that one of the smaller businesses operating in NYC, that of Adrian Toomes himself, was on the verge of something quite extraordinary. Glider Tech, the project had been entitled. A way to revolutionize civilian and military flightcraft for the 21st Century. Whoever possessed that bit of technology would make themselves rich beyond their comprehension... if they could properly fold that invention into an advantage.

Ever since Stark Industries had shuttered its weapon division, Osborn decided that he was going to move into the gap that Tony left; he'd begun buying up numerous scientists from fields that he had never acquired before; sure he'd had the best biologists, but those who specialized in robotics had alluded his grasp up until he had brought into his employ one Otto Octavius. Chemistry was all well and good but applied chemistry, meant to be used outside of the body in weaponry and design. Something that he'd needed to acquire outside help for. Flight tech had never been in Oscorp's wheelhouse... but Glider Tech would put Oscorp on the map for it regardless.

So Osborn did what he always did; he made an offer. A generous offer, even. Several millions of dollars paid out over the course of the rest of Adrian's life, to be paid in full the moment he passed to his family, for the rights to and ownership of Glider Tech, the blueprints and the tools necessary to finish the designs. After all, there was no need to play hardball when you could just buy out the competition; far cleaner and furthermore Osborn found that 90% of men were just more than happy to take the deal and live the rest of their lives off of the paycheck that Oscorp would send them. It was simple, it was quick and it was _clean._ Osborn was a man of his word after all; if you worked with him he was very willing to make sure you were taken care of.

Yet Adrian Toomes was not interested in taking a deal. Oh no; Glider Tech was _his_ after all. No amount of negotiations, no offer could shake him from that. It seemed that for Adrian Toomes pride was the overriding concern of Glider Tech, not money. It would be his work, under his name and his fame, or it would be nothing.

Osborn could almost respect that. A man was entitled to the sweat of his brow, after all, and Toomes had been much like him; a man who climbed his way to his position through his natural talents and skill in Aviation Technology. Still, respect or no, Oscorp would have Glider Tech. It was a necessary part for his vision of Oscorp's future expansion. Respect or no, Oscorp valued the future of his work and his company more than he valued Toomes. So the pressure campaign began; this is where most other men would crack. The pressure would rise and rise as it was made abundantly clear that Oscorp would not walk away quietly without the technology. A push, a shove, a man tailing, the phone calls in the night. All done with the utmost discretion by men who knew that they would be far better paid for their silence than for speaking.

Dirty, but effective... and yet still, Toomes resisted. He dug in his heels and insisted that Glider Tech would be his work. The carrot and the stick had failed... and so, Osborn sighed and cut to the chase.

A call was placed and, one moment, Glider Tech was comfortably locked away in Toomes' building with the patent under his name... and the next morning, Glider Tech was being moved to Oscorp and the patent was now under the name of a 'new employee' brought into Oscorp. Someone who would sign the patent to Oscorp and make it all nice and official. Adrian Toomes had his chance to make money off of this and instead he'd stubbornly refused to his last and, so, he would have nothing.

He would never confirm or deny it of course... but, well, it was always useful to have an Adrian Toomes around. Someone to remind future business partners of [what happened to the people who refused](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nvsGz70ZT0) to work with Oscorp of their own volition. Someone who would hang around in the back of their head.

In a way, he still was, he supposed. Just in a way he hadn't expected. Norman Osborn expected that Adrian Toomes would yell and scream and shout. That he would call the police and the prosecutors office and that they would find nothing. That no man would believe Adrian for no proof of his claim remained. Just a poor fool who claimed that one of 'his ideas' had been stolen, destined to slump off into the night. Broken and defeated, like so many men like him who had challenged Oscorp had been.

Now people didn't believe Adrian Toomes, people believed he was a madman and people believed Osborn to be the victim...

But it had come at the cost of the Vulture and his attacks.

One couldn't blame Osborn for having been surprised by this. It was one thing for Tony Stark to go off and fly around like some sort of modern day Captain America in the Middle East to satisfy his ego... it was another for someone in Osborn's own city to stage such a blatant and dangerous strike on him and his business, not once but twice. He would have to take care in the future to protect against this for, while Osborn was safe, and his people were taken care of, there were... problems that Toomes had caused.

Not problems with opportunities embedded of course. Not like the parade where Osborn had moved, immediately, to cover the costs of the medical expenses incurred. An easy bit of good will to earn as, despite being a victim himself, he could still play the part of the magnanimous party willing to help people caught up in his own drama. So many businesses these days underestimated the true value of good will.

No, just a problem with a pure cost. A problem that walked through his door as one of his lab workers approached.

"... Well?" He started off, the man's nervous demeanor choking him up for a moment before he offered Osborn numerous papers.

"We've been trying to see if we could save anything from the lab, anything at all. We've been digging back through databases and such but... well..." The man adjusted his collar as Osborn's eyes crossed the final line.

All the spiders were dead. Norman clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, letting the papers drop against his desk as he ran a hand through his red hair. Eight years of breeding those Goddamn things after the accident. An accident which had cost him several of his most dedicated and skilled technicians, biologists and chemists...

The project which was meant to give his company the Super Soldier Serum once and for all.

"None of them could be saved?" Osborn asked, brow twitching as the technician shook his head.

"No sir; the ones that weren't caught up in the fires caused by Toomes' rampage died soon after being released from their environments. Too much chaos sir. We can't even find all the bodies... but by now..."

They'd have lived out their natural life cycles and would be dead anyway. Judging by the papers, the only ones that hadn't been accounted for were the ones left sterile, the breeding sets having been burnt up in the main containment area.

A nightmare. Eight years of careful genetic manipulation and crossbreeding meant to allow for spiders whose venom produced the Serum... all gone. All down the drain.

"We still have the data backed up of course, so it's not like we'd have to completely start over as it concerns research but-"

"But it'd take potentially another eight years or more of breeding to get back to where we were before Toomes stormed in." More was even more likely; the Spiders hadn't been tested but, if they were anything like the previous batch, they weren't ready yet, their Serums not yet potent. They had more work to do if they truly wanted to make a Super Soldier again. Another decade of waiting and work...

No.

"Inform them that the lab is to be cleared out and emptied. I won't have that space laying fallow for another decade while we cross our fingers and hope that this will eventually succeed." The technician nodded as Osborn rubbed at his temples. So close. So very close. Ah well. Setbacks were to be expected, even if they came from unexpected sources. Just another reason for him to take pleasure in the fact that Toomes had been locked up. "Bring me the files on the alternatives that have been waiting in the wings. It looks like we'll be moving ahead with one of them."

The Spiders had been the best bet; the science was secure and even showing fruit, it was just fruit that had needed to be carefully tended. Now he had to go a different avenue; a different way of achieving his end. The technician nodded, muttering something about sending them through an email before he left. Not long after, indeed it seemed like the technician had rushed in response to Osborn's move, an email with several files attached pinged its way onto his computer. The loss of the spiders would be hard felt...

But Norman Osborn didn't give up or wallow when life pushed him down. A lesson his son had so far failed to learn.

He got back up, dusted himself off and got back to work.

Because that's what you had to do to get to the top.

So Osborn browsed through the files, eyes scanning through their various names and properties as he readied himself to make a decision.

Before finally settling on a serum; Globulin Green.


	28. Outtake 6: Tryouts

There was a silence in the limo as Hammerhead sat patiently, waiting for the other occupant in the back to finish viewing the news on the phone he had delicately held in his hands. The Big Man's eyes watched the screen carefully, eyes glued to it as he took in every little detail he could. Big Man didn't like to be interrupted in times like this and so Joseph kept his mouth shut. He'd know when the Big Man would be ready to continue their talk. The whole thing had been a big old surprise; while the attack on Oscorp had been known, and the chaos of the day had been something Osborn had come to the Big Man to seek out... well, answers to, no one had seen this Thanksgiving Day Parade coming.

Not a surprise, given that Toomes wasn't one of their men. Heck, the men they did have in Toomes' business apparently weren't actually close enough to the top to have an ear to this kind of activity... or if they did they hadn't passed it along. Something to look into, now that Joseph thought about it; what good was paying people to pass along info to the Big Man if they were gonna go back on that agreement, after all? Thankfully, for all the surprise this hit them with, nothing had gone too wrong; Osborn was alive, Toomes was in jail and the Big Man could get to work slowly but surely sweeping this away. Osborn would consume as much of Toomes' business as he could and the Big Man would move to ensure that bird brain wouldn't make a move like this again... at least, not without the Big Man's say so.

Because the Big Man had taken one thing away from the Macy's fight... and it hadn't been Vulture's performance.

No. It had been something more... close to home.

"So it seems our eight-legged pest here ain't just some kid after all. The Enforcer's weren't merely covering for themselves with their assurances that something was off about him." Hammerhead nodded his head as he pulled out a cigarette for himself, the Big Man placing his phone to the side as it was clear he was ready to move forward with the conversation.

"Yeah. Corroborated him sticking to walls and that freak strength of his. Kid ain't normal, that's for sure." The Big Man nodded, folding his fingers together as he glanced out the windows.

"One of Stark's?" First obvious question, given Tony Stark's recent turn to... eccentric heroism, as the Big Man had referred to it.

"Nah, too low tech for that. Most boys we have in the know seem to think he's a freak, like Wade Wilson." Tales were aplenty of the criminal mercenaries that ran around the world doing odd jobs like Wilson and Masters, if those were even those two bastard's real names, and the things they could do. Others who had crazy abilities involving feats of strength and speed and... oddities that befuddled the mind. In their attempts to hire one of the two of them before Spider-Man got Frank Castle to go underground himself, he'd seen videos of some of what they could do...

He'd watched a man get a bullet plugged between his eyes just stand there, joke like it was nothing, before returning the favor and killing the man who'd done it to him.

In all honesty, Hammerhead hadn't slept easy that night after seeing that. Wade Wilson was something else entirely and, increasingly, it looked like this kid, this Spider-Man, was of the same kind judging by his fight with Toomes.

"That would make a sad amount of sense, all things considered. It also means that we probably can't count on the injury he took in the middle of that fight to keep him down for long given how... sticky Mr. Wilson and Mr. Masters tend to be." The Big Man casually reached over for a glass of wine he'd had set out for him, taking a sip as he let out a small sigh. "He's still pretty small time, all things considered... but he's been becoming a bigger pain in the side. Furthermore, if he's not fully human..."

"Then actually dealing with the punk ain't gonna be a walk in the park. At least we know Frank Castle's just a man; put enough lead in him and he'll go down eventually. Our boys can't even tag this kid though, moves too fast, and he's too tough for them to win in a straight up fight. They get into a tussle with him without overwhelming odds and they'll be in trouble."

"Putting so many men in one place ain't smart either. We can get away with smaller groups being caught by the police because they'll be passed off as a small group of thugs... but entire gangs getting together into one place to take down one target... no. I don't like it. We were cutting it close enough when we organized the hit on Castle and his family. Putting enough men together that they'd be able to swarm this Spider... well, that would be an order of magnitude even more risky."

"The police wouldn't be able to just write it off as unorganized crime. The ones that ain't ours might start getting curious." Hammerhead agreed with the Big Man, lighting his cigarette and taking a drag. "So, what's the plan Big Man?"

"For now? He's still a small fry. A child. He's bound to do something risky sooner or later that might wind up with his catching himself in his own web. For now, he's no Frank Castle. His impact on our wallet isn't so grand that we have to do anything... drastic."

"Drastic, no... but I feel like there's a but coming." The Big Man just smiled lightly at that as he took another sip of his wine.

"But... that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have something out in the field to... distract his attention from our men. Keep him running in circles." The Big Man set his wine glass to the side as he leaned forward. "I trust that the Tinkerer has finished his work?"

"He has. In fact, our boys are just getting done running a few tryouts. See who we got in our employ who might be best suited to putting it to use." Hammerhead checked his own phone. "In fact, they should be just about done."

"I'll leave you to it then." The Big Man said, plainly, as he motioned for his driver's attention. "We'll drop you off somewhere close so you can get to work... I want this out and working in the next week."

"Consider it done, Big Man." Hammerhead bowed his head respectfully as the Big Man just graciously nodded, the two riding along in silence before the large, Russian mobster departed the limo.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"So... who we got in the lead, boys?" The goons that had been overseeing the tryouts, as they'd been referred to, turned as Hammerhead entered the warehouse, the empty, decrepit building converted into a makeshift track and field for the sake of these exercises. Tinkerer's work was top notch of course but, according to the man himself, it'd run best on someone physically fit and capable of pushing the tech to its limits with their own natural ability. Naturally, they turned to those among their recruits who were young, athletic and capable of working up a big sweat.

The guy with the biggest guns and the best speed would be put to the final test and, if all went well... well, the Big Man would have a very nice new proxy running around New York to do some of his work. Which, in turn, would come with a nice, big old pay raise for the goon in question.

"Ah, Mr. Hammerhead sir, glad you're here. Trials are about up." The man pushed a clipboard into Joseph's hands, the gangster looking through the result as his eyes glanced up to the final test run; a series of laps run around the building itself. "Good timing all things considered; we think we've pretty much got a slam dunk with one of the mooks who showed up. Kids been busting tests left and right and seems like a perfect fit. Dude's even lapped these morons three times in this twenty minute little marathon we've got going." Joseph, admittedly, raised an eyebrow at that, rather impressed as he looked out to the front of the pack... who was sweating profusely, gasping for breath and stumbling along as the run came to its finish.

"Looks like he's about out of gas if you ask me." Hammerhead commented slightly as the man to his right shook his head.

"No sir, not him, the young black fellow coming up the back." Hammerhead's eyes swiveled around and, sure enough, a young black kid, keeping a good pace and running right along, slowly but surely wrapped his way around the back of the pack as he kept moving forward. "Guess we're gonna have to make that four times these goons got lapped." The man chuckled as Hammerhead nodded his head, watching the boy keep going.

"Interestin'. Go ahead and call it... I'm gonna go ahead and have a word with our little winner here." The rest of the men nodded as they passed the word along, calling out over a speaker to announce the end of the run as Hammerhead slowly but surely descended from the balcony overlooking the warehouse. As his feet rang out against the metal stairs that wrapped their way down to the ground level, he watched as several of the punks practically collapsed, breathing deeply and sweating their balls off as they did so. Some stayed on their feet, barely, while the kid in question just stood standing, walking around slowly with his hands on top of his head, taking slow, steady breaths. Kid looked winded but it looked like he could keep this up for even longer...

Good.

"Hey, kid." The young man ignored him at first, causing Joseph to frown a bit. "Yo, you, with the rows in your hair, pay attention." The kid flinched at that as he turned to face him, [dark eyes surprised](https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/8/85070/1808766-hobie_brown.jpg) as he immediately nodded and turned to face Hammerhead as he approached. "Good, finally got your attention. Now, what's your name kid, who exactly am I talking to?"

...

The kid looked around again, as if still not entirely sure he was the one being spoken to.

"Yeah kid I'm talkin' to you. So speak up before I start gettin' impatient." The young man nodded at that, looking apologetic as he took a breath.

"... Hobie Brown sir, nice to meet you... uh, I'm guessing you're the guy my boss keeps talkin' about. Hammerhead?"

"I see my reputation precedes me. Yeah kid, I'm Hammerhead. Mine joining me for a moment?" Hobie Brown nodded his head as the two of them departed, walking deeper into the warehouse as Hammerhead guided the young kid around. "So you got a boss huh? Anyone I actually know?"

"Uh, 'Fat' Tony sir, down in Ozone Park... we uh, call him Fat Tony to differentiate between him and, you know, Stark." Hammerhead nodded along like he was paying much attention; in all honesty if he had to push himself, he did remember that the goon running the joint down in Ozone Park was some butterball, but he couldn't remember much else. God help him that they had so many bosses in the various neighborhoods that, whoever's job it was to keep track of them all, Hammerhead sure as Hell didn't remember them...

But still, it was good to act like he did and that he cared.

"Ah, Tony, of course. Tony been treatin' you right, kid? Got any complaints?" Hobie shook his head at that.

"No sir... he's been a big help actually. Been making sure my mom thinks that my part-time job's... you know, legit. Cleanin' windows and stuff like that." Hammerhead nodded at that as Hobie scratched the back of his head. "It's been a lot of help too... don't think I'd make as much money as I do if I did actually clean windows, ya know?"

"Well that's what we're here for kid. You do good work for us and we make sure you and yours are taken care of. That's what people should be doin' in this dump, right?" Hammerhead grinned as he took Hobie past a few doors, the young man nodding along.

"Yeah, totally." At that they were somewhere in the back of the warehouse... where 'it' had been stored for the time being.

"Good. Because this whole little tryout here? We've been looking for someone to do a little bit more work. A... promotion, if you will." Hobie perked up at that, Joseph knowing he had the kid's attention immediately. "We need someone in shape and who can give a good sweat for this one, so we actually had to see if any of the toughs from around here could pull it off. Seems like you're pretty fit there, kid."

"Yeah, I uh, play football, basketball and do track and field back at my high school during the different seasons." Hobie scratched his cheek. "It's actually part of how I got into my high school in the first place."

"A little athlete, ain'tcha?" Hobie blushed at that, the young man's already dark skin darkening as Joseph nodded. "Well Hobie, seems to me like you're exactly what we're looking for. If you pass muster in the trial period then, trust me, whatever help you think you're getting from our pay'll turn into a lot more once we're done." Hobie couldn't help but get excited at that idea; him making a good bit of money to help his folks and, hey, maybe do something nice for himself for once? That sounded like a good deal to him. As they approached a wall, Joseph quickly reached out and popped open part of it; a fake wall meant to hide what had been stored here.

"So... I'll get paid well if I get this job?"

"Kid... trust me, you'll be raking in the dough." With that, Joseph opened up the compartment and, for a moment, Hobie couldn't help but gasp in wonder...

A pay raise 'and' something [that looked that dope?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6xuo1LL-SuQ/maxresdefault.jpg) Yeah, Hobie Brown could get behind this.


	29. Job Hunting

You yawned as you made your way down toward the kitchen, scratching some of the sleep out of your eyes as you did so. Upon hitting the bottom of the stairs you stop upon hearing some light whispering coming from the kitchen. You had been wandering toward there for a bite of something to eat after your impromptu nap but now, hearing that whispering, you couldn't help but feel just a wee bit curious and cautious about just storming in there. Peaking your head in around the corner you find not a scene for much concern as you might've feared; rather than whispering to someone on the phone or in the room you pay witness to just your good old Aunt May stalking about, tapping her chin as she looked about.  
  
The whispering had been her; she was mumbling to herself, as if trying to walk through some set of directions in her own head by muttering them to herself as she scanned the kitchen for... actually, you had no idea what your aunt was looking for. Well, no point in hanging around like a weirdo not asking her, right?  
  
"Hey there Aunt May-"  
  
"Goodness!" You watched as your Aunt jumped a bit upon your speaking, the woman turning to look at you with a surprised expression on her face, a bit of shocked laughter rumbling in her chest as she held onto her heart for a moment. "Peter! Oh, hahahaha, silly me, I didn't hear you come down. I must've been off in my own little world there for a moment." You smiled, thinking that it must've been way longer than a moment if Aunt May was so thoroughly distracted, as you made the last few steps into the kitchen. "You hungry dear? I can whip you up something if you'd like."  
  
Tempting but you weren't _that_ hungry.  
  
"Nah, I'm just here for a snack. Besides, it seems like you're pretty busy yourself Aunt May." May just smiled a bit, the woman looking around the kitchen as she sighed a bit.  
  
"I am a little, I suppose. Anna called earlier; she's been looking around her house for something she's missing from the house. She seemed to be in such a storm about it too, very irritated. She thinks that her brother probably took it when he and his family left the city after Thanksgiving... apparently a little bit of an argument broke out. It was this little trinket she'd brought to show here and her husband thinks that she might've left it here instead of taking it back home."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
"Yes. I suggested that maybe Anna left it somewhere around her house but, no, the two of them have been looking on and off for the past couple days so neither of them think that's it. Anna's getting ready to throw a fit and call her brother up so John asked if I could have a look around to make sure that she didn't leave it here." She motioned with her hands to give the general size of the thing. "It's about a few inches tall, it's this nifty little figurine of a pilgrim and a turkey... you know how Anna loves her knick-knacks."  
  
No kidding; when you'd go over to Anna's house previously it seemed like there were entire furniture pieces dedicated solely to displaying all the little knick-knacks that Anna Watson had bought over the decades.  
  
"Well I can help you look if you'd like Aunt May." You offered as May smiled a bit.  
  
"Well I would appreciate it Peter." You nod at that as you consider how best to approach this...

"Well if you'd appreciate it then that's really all the reason I need to help out." You clap your hands together as you point up. "You look high on the furniture-" Then down to the floor, "-I'll look on the floor to see if she dropped it anywhere."  
  
"Thank you dear, that should be much easier on me." You nodded at that as quickly you got down on all fours and started crawling around the kitchen. You didn't have a huge area to look around, just the kitchen and the living room really, so you'd just have to look in, around and under some of the furniture to see if Anna May had ended up dropping it anywhere while she'd been here. It'd still take a while what with you crawling around on your hands and knees and having to look through the various nooks and crannies of the first floor, but it wouldn't take ages like it would've taken you or Aunt May to look through all levels of the place. So as you started looking your own natural curiosity couldn't help but be triggered as you sought out something to focus on while you went about your search.  
  
"So I take it convincing her brother to move to New York isn't going very well?" You asked as you, while Aunt May wasn't looking, removed your false glasses in order to get a clearly look around the house. May chuckled slightly at that as she pulled up a chair to start looking around the upper parts of the kitchen.  
  
"Goodness Peter, I don't think Philip could be convinced to move back to New York City for good if you bribed him. That part was never going to work out well... but, more to the point, getting Mary Jane to stay with Anna for a while hasn't gone forward swimmingly." Well that opened up whole new avenues of questions.  
  
"So... Philip Watson doesn't have a good opinion on New York, I take it?" You asked, curious, as Aunt May nodded.  
  
"Oh yes. Bit of a long story but before he left he was actually a Professor of Journalism over at the Craig Newmark Graduate School and was featured quite prominently in the Times several times. Anna doesn't like to admit it but she keeps a lot of Philips Editorial pieces from back during Bloomberg's term as mayor in one of her little drawers. That woman could never stand to throw anything away, even when she was mad." You raised an eyebrow at that.  
  
"Wait, is that really when he started making a splash? Not that Anna May's old, but I'd have figured..." Aunt May cackled a bit.  
  
"Peter, dear, don't feel bad about saying Anna or the two of us are old. We are... but you're right to be confused; Philip is Anna's much younger brother. Youngest even if I remember right. She was already in high school by the time Philip was born so she always took this... well, motherly sort of care to him. When he was growing up, God, she treated him like one of her own children." May shook her head as you glanced back over at her.  
  
"Well... okay so it sounds like he was doing pretty well. Graduate professor, wrote for the Times. Why would he not want to come back?" Aunt May sighed as she tapped her chin.  
  
"Philip, well, he was always a very quiet, private sort of man. He fancies himself a writer, even gotten a few small books of his published, but he's a much better journalist than a book writer, if you understand. He's possessed of a bit of a temper too, like Anna can have from time to time, and when you're living in Manhattan with the kind of work he did, it can be rather exhausting. When he and his wife, Madeline, finally started having a family he says he got sick of how many ways his attention was being split, how little time he could spend with his family and how hectic life in Manhattan was. So he moved out upstate. He's working for a regional paper up there, even close to becoming an editor according to Anna, and he's still cracking away at some books in his free time." Aunt May shrugged. "It's like I said with Anna, not everyone is suited for life in a city as large as New York."  
  
... Okay wait then...  
  
"If he already gave the New York life a try, then why is Anna..."  
  
"... Like I said, Anna has a bit of his temper too. Seems like it runs in the Watson family. She's always looked after him as more of a son of hers than a brother and Anna... well, you've seen Anna. She's wonderful and can be very supportive, but she's... insistent." Aunt May scratched the back of her head. "She's always... insisted-" You were getting the feeling that Aunt May was replacing another word with 'insistent', "-that Philip has so much potential that he's wasting on writing and out upstate. That if he stuck to it and didn't 'give up' then he could've ended up running the New York Times himself. She's concerned that he's denying his children the opportunities that being raised in New York can present them too. Anna's not very... enthused about how much smaller the world outside of New York can be. Says that Philip's keeping his daughters, big Watson fish she says, in a little, tiny pond.  
  
"And of course Philip doesn't quite appreciate Anna's, hmmm, advice about his parenting or his career and living choices so his temper triggers and then that makes Anna's temper trigger so then they're both at each other's throat... and then..."  
  
"They both blow up at each other?" You finished with a wince as Aunt May nodded.  
  
"Yes, precisely that." Aunt May shakes her head. "They both want what they think is best for Mary Jane, Anna thinks she'd do wonderfully in a New York school in that kind of social life, but Philip... well, he knows how hard it can be to live here and what kinds of things can happen. How life can get out of hand and even... well, how hard it can be to just make a living." Aunt May smiled over at you. "Your Uncle and I were quite stretched for the longest time when we were young and in love. Part of the reason he joined the army, in fact." Aunt May gave a short sigh. "Family, even when it has the best of intentions Peter, can be very hard to work with at times. Even people who love each other deep down can fight over something they both think is important if they think it's what's for the best. Sadly, that's just where Anna and Philip are at the moment."  
  
Wow... sounded really rough.

"So uh... kind of hard to not notice that what Mary Jane wants hasn't come up in the conversation yet." Aunt May gave a small laugh as you said this, the woman looking over her shoulder at you as she nodded.  
  
"Quite right, it hasn't. From what I understand, Mary's rather excited about the prospect of living in New York City. Tempered as it might be by her father's experiences and warnings, Anna May has done her best to really sell Mary on the city... and she's not entirely wrong about how good it could be for her education. Plus I imagine a teenage girl living in upstate New York for most of her life would find the idea of New York City, the Big Apple, enticing. It's the place to be, after all." Aunt May said, a slightly wry, bemused tone to that last bit of her sentence in her voice as she laughed to herself, earning a slight smile from you as you leaned up a bit.  
  
"So why doesn't that seem to matter to her dad then? If she wants to come here for a bit why not let her?" May nodded slightly at that, ho-humming to herself as she seemed to try to think of the best way to phrase what she's thinking.  
  
"Parenting isn't easy Peter. It might seem like it at times when you're young and the one being parented but... well, there's a lot to think about. A lot of things to balance out, experiences you've gone through that you might not wish to see inflicted on your child. A risk and reward, a worry about their safety and well being. Mary Jane wants to come to New York because it's new and exciting... but it isn't new to Philip and he's worried about his little girl getting caught up in the big city. There's a reason your Uncle and I don't live in The Bronx anymore and that we never considered moving to Manhattan.  
  
"Mary Jane is Philip's daughter and his responsibility, just like you're our responsibility Peter. Parents aren't perfect but we do try our best to do right by you all." You nodded slowly at that as Aunt May turned to look at you, causing you to quickly put your glasses back on. "When you have that kind of responsibility, it makes you think very carefully about what sort of decisions can have what sort of effects on your own. Anna and Philip both have that in mind for Mary... but, well, you aren't wrong to ask what she wants. Given the circumstances, it'd probably be for the best if Philip did allow Mary to stay with Anna, at least for a while. Just to give it a try."  
  
"I feel like there's a bit in there." You said with a smile as Aunt May gave a small laugh.  
  
"But I understand why Philip might not be inclined to." You nodded at that as you both went back to looking. Finally as you surreptitiously lifted the couch up ever so slightly...  
  
"Ah, found it Aunt May!" You snatched up the little pilgrim from under the couch before slowly letting it back down, getting up to show Aunt May as the woman tussled your hair.  
  
"Thank you Peter, you're a dear." You rub your nose at that as Aunt May nodded to the fridge. "There's leftovers from Thanksgiving, if you're still in the mood for a snack. I'll run this back over to Anna; best that she and her brother not fall into a pointless argument while all of this is going on." You nodded in agreement as Aunt May wandered off, leaving you with the kitchen as she left the house.  
  
...  
  
For a moment, the conversation couldn't help but make you wonder; given what Aunt May said, how would she and Uncle Ben react to you wanting to be a superhero? Judging by the conversation... not great. You heave a sigh as you walk over to the fridge, deciding to block out any such nonsense with a big old plate of pumpkin pie.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

... No reason to worry there Parker, no reason to worry at all. In fact, you didn't know why you were so nervous, it was completely silly for you to be! After all, you worked in the basement all the time before doing odd little experiments with your chemistry set! Why were you worried, there was nothing to worry about at all! You weren't acting weird or out of character compared to how you were before the super powers!  
  
"Sorry this Peter, I'll do my best to get out of your hair here soon, just have to look around at a few things. I know this is usually your space and all..."  
  
"Sure thing Uncle Ben, after all, it's your basement! I just borrow it for my dumb hobbies, you know how it is."  
  
"I'd hardly call chemistry a dumb hobby there, kiddo."  
  
"Hahahaha, yeah, maybe."  
  
Besides, what did you honestly have down here? Your costume was hidden up in your room, your Web Shooters were in your backpack until you brought them down here for work and you didn't really keep anything other than your chemistry set down here in the basement on a consistent basis! It wasn't like Uncle Ben could possibly find anything while he was down here aside from the chemistry set, the Webbing, the vials of Webbing.  
  
"With winter getting so close I wanted to do a check through the house's electric, make sure that everything was in tip top shape. I'd rather not have the power short out in the middle of winter just because your old man of an uncle forgot to check on the breakers and plugs, if you feel me." Uncle Ben laughed as he tapped his head, causing you to chuckle at his joke so as to appear completely inconspicuous.  
  
"Yeah, that'd stick if the power went down when it wouldn't have to. It's been pretty chilly already so who knows what winter will actually be like."  
  
Besides, Uncle Ben wasn't even looking for anything specific! He had his head buried in the circuit box checking over this switch and that, following the electrical wiring and making sure it was all in place. Ben liked to do that around the beginning of winter and the beginning of summer; the former to ensure that the house stayed powered so things like the electric heating that usually got set up around your home would stay on in the middle of winter and, for the latter, to make sure that the air conditioning wouldn't give out if it got especially toasty. This was normal for Uncle Ben, just like it was normal for you to spend all hours of the day down here doing little experiments.  
  
"You're telling me. Trust me Peter, when you get to be a couple of crotchety old folks like your Aunt and I, the cold starts to hit you even worse. Take my advice sport; don't ever get old."  
  
"Uncle Ben, you and Aunt May aren't... well you're not crotchety." Uncle Ben swung his fist at you jokingly as you nervously scratched at the back of your neck. There was nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about at all. Uncle Ben would just go ahead and spend some time down here in the basement, he'd do his business and then you could get back to doing your little experiments on the Webbing. Absolutely nothing to worry about, absolutely nothing-  
  
"So sport, what've you been working on down here?"  
  
-EVERYTHING, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, AAAAAAAAAAH!  
  
You quickly try to reign in your thoughts as you grin shrugging your shoulders as you lean back against the table. "Oh you know... science stuff. You know what that stuff's all about Uncle Ben." You say casually as you internally wince at your phrasing, your Uncle grinning over at you as he taps his head.  
  
"it might actually surprise you to know Peter that I don't know what that 'science stuff' is all about. Don't quite got the brains in here that you got in there, kiddo." You smile sheepishly at that as you look to the side.  
  
"Come on Uncle Ben."  
  
"Hey I'm serious sport. Still, just cause your old Uncle's a bit slow on the uptake doesn't mean he's not interested. You're always so excited about what you get up to down here so, you know, thought I'd ask in order to pass the time." With that Uncle Ben continued working in the circuit box. "So what mad science experiments have you been getting down to sport? Anything like that one time you tried to make... oh what was it, some new cleaner for your laptops parts."  
  
...  
  
"You mean the one that nearly destroyed my own laptop?" You admitted, awkwardly, as both you and Uncle Ben winced a bit.  
  
"Boy was that trip to the Best Buy expensive." The two of you couldn't help but laugh awkwardly at that as he shrugged.  
  
"Well, hopefully it's something a little less... corrosive as that."  
  
Well, what you were actually working on wasn't corrosive, you could at least admit that.  
Okay so, simple. A half truth, like with Anna May Watson. It was probably the best way to go forward and, besides, with you having told Anna May that this is what you were working on you weren't complicating your little web by adding an additional wrinkle to it. If Uncle Ben and Anna talked about this then they wouldn't find anything amiss with your story at all and would lock up on it. Good thinking there, Parker. Now all you had to do was execute on it.  
  
"Like I've said to Anna before, I've been experimenting with adhesives. Trying to make something down here with my kit." You start, shrugging your shoulders casually as you did so, as Uncle Ben looked back over at you with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"Adhesives huh? Don't know if that's what I'd be working on if I were your age. Probably be more interesting in making cherry bombs, truth be told." You laughed a bit at that as Uncle Ben winked at you, the man going back to work as you quickly thought through a variety of small and general ideas for 'adhesives'.  
  
"Eh, might be a little boring but I could certainly use it. All the duct tape that I've been using to help hold my laptop together tends to make the old girl overheat a bit, which isn't really good for the system. Plus all the bits and pieces of stick left from the tap usually end up just gunking the thing up which, you know-"  
  
"Leads to you needing to risk damaging it to actually clean the sucker. I feel ya." You nodded at that as you pounded your fist into your hand.  
  
"So I thought that if I could make something that could help stick the bits of my laptop together without leaving a mess or that wouldn't cause it to heat up quite so much then I'd be able to actually put together some more permanent fixes on it without having to rely on replacing layers and layers of duct tape every few months." You shook your head as you sighed. "Hardest part's been how to keep it heat resistant. After all, adhesive doesn't do you much good if it just goes all sticky and fluid again when introduced to heat."  
  
"Yeah that is a problem and why I do generally stick with duct tape myself whenever I'm fixing up some stuff like the furnace with a small patch. Even if it's not the cleanest way it's usually the best way to introduce a small, temporary patch rather than trying to glue something on there. Still, sounds like if you get done what you want done you'll have yourself a nice little fix to that." You shrug your shoulders.  
  
"I mean it's not like they don't have adhesives like that on the market." They did, heck, you were even pretty sure that if someone really wanted to they could recreate your Web Formula if given enough time to think it over or even just a little time to study your own Webbing. "But, you know... really expensive."  
  
"Yeah I feel that." Uncle Ben said with a firm nod as he quickly leaned back, flipping one of the switches back and forth. Sure enough power was quick to snap off and then snap back on right quick, Aunt May having earlier busied herself with a book upstairs when Uncle Ben had been preparing to work on the power. With so little delay Uncle Ben moved onto the last of the breakers he wanted to work on. "Sometimes you gotta jury-rig up something real quick because the actual thing you're looking for is a might bit expensive. Still, kind of rough that you have to dedicate your time down here with things like that, kiddo." You shrugged at that again, scratching the back of your head.  
  
"Well, you know, it's still fun to do and figure out. Like I got this problem in front of me and I have to think of a creative solution. Besides, it's not like fixing up my computer would be the only thing these experiments would be good for." Heck, you'd already started thinking up other things to do with the Web Formula, from how to change it up to have different effects to if you could even use it to shape stuff. Lots of possibilities even with one invention.  
  
"Right." You were a bit surprised when Uncle Ben didn't follow up much on your question, causing you to scratch the side of your head before shrugging. Hey, if you got away from this one clean then you weren't gonna complain; Uncle Ben bought in and now, soon as he was done working, he would- "Say kiddo, Christmas is coming up next month you know."  
  
...  
  
"Yeah, I know Uncle Ben." You said with a nod as your Uncle lightly scratched at his brow with the screwdriver he'd been working with.  
  
"You got any inklings as to what you want this year? Something for me and May to start keeping our eyes open for while we're working or shopping or browsing wherever? Might be working more hours but I still got time to keep my eyes peeled for the holidays."  
  
Oh well... uh, this conversation took an unexpected turn.

You think carefully for a moment... you didn't want to go too out of left field so as to hint that something meaningfully changed. Plus if you made it too obviously superhero-y then Uncle Ben would probably catch on. The man wasn't an idiot after all and if you treated him as such you were just asking to get hit. So, well, why not stick with what you'd generally been asking for over the past few years. You know, keep it simple and, actually, useful.  
  
"Well... maybe some replacement equipment for my chemistry set? It's fine for now, but some of the stuff will wear out eventually." Especially with how frequently you were putting it to use now. Before the Spider Powers you would make use of it, sure, but maybe along the lines of once a week. Now with all this experimentation you were doing and the production you were running on your Webbing the set was in near constant use, the pieces of the set were bound to wear out even quicker than ever before. That was just simple mechanics right there. So having a replacement on hand, as usual, would be a good way to cut down costs.  
  
"Heh, you aren't a complicated kid, are ya kiddo?" Uncle Ben said as he worked a bit more in the breaker box. "I mean, you're complicated in that this is some pretty intelligent, science stuff, but you don't ask for much more than this on Christmas." You shrugged your shoulders.  
  
"Well, it's all I really need and it is my hobby. Besides... you know." You didn't want to say that you'd roughly gamed out the Christmas budget by now after years of living with Aunt May and Uncle Ben... but you'd roughly gamed out the Christmas budget by now. As much as asking for something big might've been cathartic, it was better to work with your family than to push for something crazy.  
  
"Yeah, yeah I know kiddo." Uncle Ben said with a small, warm chuckle as he took a step back, flipping the last breaker on and off a few times before smiling contentedly. "Well I'd say that's that. Thanks for your time there Peter, I'll get out of your hair now."  
  
"Come on Uncle Ben, you're a welcome guest in the basement..." Just so long as he kept on giving you heads up, of course.  
  
"Maybe so, but a man needs his space after all. You have fun now sport." You nodded as your Uncle ascended up the stairs, leaving you to sigh in relief once the door closed and going around to get your supplies. Your Webbing wasn't going to make itself for the next week, after all.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Alright, time for some odd jobs. Which, really, should be a breeze when you thought about it. It was late fall and early winter and things were moving into high gear; it was getting colder, people's trees were just dumping leaves everywhere and generally everyone was wanting to get ready and move on for the winter. Moving things around, getting them packed away or just cleaning up so that their houses didn't look atrocious. There was bound to be a cornucopia of odd jobs for you to do around the neighborhood, and it'd probably stay like that straight through winter; after all, somebody had to shovel all that snow.  
  
So you were ready; you got some little fliers ready to post up on telephone poles with your phone number on them so people would know you were looking to do their odd jobs and you had a kick in your step. Time to earn some money for your poor, poor wallet. So you started with your own street first; you didn't expect that people would bite immediately or give you the really hard, higher paying work they might offer ordinarily due to your reputation for being an asthmatic nerd but you expected they still might open up their wallets for you to, like, rake their leaves or do some light work that they might find to be too troublesome to do. After all, the neighborhood you were in had a lot of older people who didn't live with their kids, grandkids or nephews, after all.  
  
So you went about plying your trade and sticking up fliers and... well, after the first pass down the street you weren't getting a lot of calls on your cell phone. Which was... odd. You shrugged though, like you said, you weren't expecting a response immediately as you hefted your stack of fliers in your hands and walked back up the street, ready to head to another part of the neighborhood to put down your fliers there. As you did so, and as you passed a power-line post, you noticed something about the flier that you'd stuck on there minutes beforehand...  
  
Namely that it'd been torn down.  
  
"What? No, my flier!" You frowned as you saw the bit of it that remained flapping impotently in the late autumn breeze. Come on, you were just trying to get a side job. Who would-  
  
"Hey, Puny Parker!"  
  
...  
  
Oh come on.  
  
You sigh as you turn around, expecting to see Flash Thompson behind you... only to see open air.  
  
You then tilt your head down and see... oh.  
  
"Francis?" You asked, confused upon seeing the younger brother of Flash Thompson so soon after the Thanksgiving Day Party at your house. He was flanked on either side by a couple of his friends, a couple of kids who looked like your pretty average elementary school kids. One was a little taller than the both of them and the other still had a bit of the old baby face still, but they weren't really all that distinguishable in your eyes, unlike Francis who did look the part of his older brother at that age.  
  
His two friends chuckled under their breath, muttering 'Francis' as they did so as Francis' cheeks went red with an embarrassed blush.  
  
"Shut uuuup. Don't call me that! I'm Dash, not 'Francis'." Of course he was.  
  
"Right, right. Did you tear down my flier... Dash?" You asked, not helping yourself as you could feel a slight bubble of amusement in your chess as the little kid nodded fervently.  
  
"Yeah, I did! It's nosy of you, Parker, to start trying to take my jobs! I called this street first!"  
  
"You did huh?" You couldn't help but cross your arms at the attempt at bravado that the kid was putting on; as much as he looked like Flash at that age, Dash wasn't as big as you had remembered Flash as being, so the attempt at intimidation was kind of moot...  
  
Wait... was Flash big or was the fact that you were a little kid too make him seem bigger than he was? Huh. Question to ponder for later.  
  
"Yeah, I did! I licked the street and everything!"  
  
...  
  
"Wh-huh?" Okay, you hadn't seen that coming.  
  
"Yeah he did, totally licked the street, so this is our street. Those are the rules!" The slightly taller kid flanking Dash had said with a firm nod, as if this made perfect sense, as the kid to the left of Dash just giggled.  
  
"It was totally gross though. Dash was spitting up like little bits of rocks and dirt. It was funny!" Dash's face went red from embarrassment again as he turned to his friend.  
  
"Shut-uuup! It was not funny you... dick!" Woah! You cover your mouth to keep from laughing at the display as the kid just giggled again.  
  
"Man, I guess licking the road gave you a dirty mouth Dash!" The kid... the kid... uh. Did he... did he just dab? Before Dash could get anymore embarrassed you coughed into your fist, drawing their attention back to you.  
  
"Guys... uh, I'm stepping on your turf or something?" You asked, questioningly, as Dash's eyes sparked.  
  
"Oh, right! Yeah, so you guys shut up we need to deal with this." The two other friends of Dash nodded at that as the kid turned back to you. "Thanks Peter... I mean Parker, thanks Puny Parker!" Oh man, it was so much funnier when it wasn't Flash looming over you. Now you were the one doing the looming. "So if you don't back off of our turf then we'll... ummm..." Dash looked at his two other friends. "Guys?"  
  
"Beat him up, right?" The taller kid asked, as Dash shrugged.  
  
"Won't we get in trouble for that?" Dash asked as the dabbing kid just shrugged his shoulder. While the three of them weren't paying attention you noticed that, down the road, Mrs. Thompson seemed to be talking to someone else in the neighborhood; she must've brought these three here with Dash. Maybe to watch over him if he was being serious about doing jobs on this street? Well, either way, she hadn't noticed the little...  
  
God it was kind of pathetic to call this a confrontation but there you had it.  
  
You stroked your chin as you considered how to handle this little situation.

Well, while these three kiddos were busy arguing with each other about how much trouble they'd get in for beating you up and if there were any other way to enforce all this, you quickly glanced back over to Mrs. Thompson as she chatted away with one of the neighbors down the street. Rather than wait for Dash and his friends to potentially get into more trouble you did your best to get Mrs. Thompson's attention while the kids were distracted. You quickly started waving your stacks of fliers around, hoping the sudden, moving colors being waved in her direction might drag Rosie's attention your way out of the corner of her eye. Thankfully it seemed like the effort worked as, at first, she just tilted her head your way to look at the colors, then turned her head fully upon noticing it was you and waving back... before her eyes snapped down to Dash and his two friends. Immediately you saw her eyes widen for a moment before... oh, oh dear. You knew that look. You saw it a lot whenever you and Eugene would play together as kids and Eugene would do something dumb.  
  
Immediately Rosie ended her conversation with the neighbor, giving him a parting goodbye as she started to stomp her way over in your direction. You winced as you looked back down at the three kids who, finally, seemed to settle on a course of action.  
  
"Well... I mean, if we just punch him once he'll get the message and get off the street right?"  
  
"I dunno man, even Flash doesn't have to punch people, so I don't..."  
  
"Well think of it like this; Flash is bigger than us right so of course he doesn't have to, so we just gotta punch Puny Parker a little and-"  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU THREE SAYING?!"  
  
Immediately the four of you straightened up, spines immediately rigid, as even your gut reaction was to stiffen in terror at the sound of Rosie Thompson raising her voice so menacingly. "FRANCIS THOMPSON, ARE YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS TALKING ABOUT BEATING UP PETER PARKER HERE?!"  
  
"Mom, wait, no, we weren't, he was just doing jobs on our street and, and, we-"  
  
"We were just gonna punch him once!"  
  
"Dennis you idiot!"  
  
"I cannot believe it! Francis, you apologize to Peter for being a little nuisance and then you and your friends get down the street and wait with Mr. Wood _right now_ or so help me God." The two friends of Dash immediately nodded and bolted it for the neighbor that Mrs. Thompson had been talking to, Dash waiting behind as he looked up at his mom.  
  
"Mom, I said don't call me Francis! Besides- OW OW OW OW OW!" You winced as Rosie snatched Francis by his ear, tugging it just a bit so that he had to tilt his head as she looked down at him.  
  
"I will call you by the name that I gave you after I spent twelve hours squeezing you out, Francis! Now, apologize to Peter." Francis looked over at you with a wince.  
  
"I'm sorry for threatening to beat you up Peter, and I'm sorry for tearing down your sign."  
  
...  
  
It seems it only just then occurred to Francis that no one had actually said anything about your fliers when his mother's gaze went from hot to flaming hot.  
  
"We are going to have a talk about treating people's property with respect when we get home Francis. Now go to Mr. Wood, now." Rosie let go of Francis, the young boy holding onto his ear as he immediately sprinted off for his friends. Rosie sighed a bit as she combed a hand through her hair. "Sorry about that Peter; don't know where that boy and his brother get their attitudes from, I swear."  
  
You got a pretty good idea as to where Flash got his temper from at least. Good Lord, this woman was just as scary as the last day you spent over at Flash's house hanging out.  
  
"Uh, that's no problem Mrs. Thompson, you know how it is; kids will be kids." You shrugged at that, a nervous chuckle escaping your chest as Rosie pulled off an even scarier trick; immediately switching over to being super friendly and kindly as she looked over at you. How did she do it every single time? "So uh... what brings you by the neighborhood Mrs. Thompson?"  
  
"Oh you know. Trying to teach my kid and his little friends about the value of hard work and money by having them do some little odd jobs on the street. They're real little so they don't make much but, you know, every step helps with raisin' em. Specially when they can be as difficult as Francis and Eugene were at that age." You nodded at that as Rosie looked down at your fliers. "Setting up to get your own odd jobs there Peter?" You nodded as you adjusted your fake glasses.  
  
"Yeah... uh, looking for a bit of work I can do with my asthma being what it is. Got a few things I want to save up for so... well, why not take a chance." Rosie nodded at that, smiling at you.  
  
"Well good on you Peter. I hope you have good luck with that." At that, Rosie looked over at her kid and his friends for a moment before looking back at you. "Though... could I ask you a little favor?"  
  
"Shoot." You said back as Rosie nodded.  
  
"Francis and his friends really don't work that fast. By the time they get what jobs are up on this street done there's usually something else up on the street they can do. Like I said, I'm trying to get Francis to learn what actually goes into money so I've really appreciated the neighbors around here giving him some work. I couldn't ask them to turn you down if you came knocking; after all, you can probably work a lot faster than my boy." You nodded at that as Rosie frowned. "I'd hate to ask this but could you maybe just let Francis and his friends have this bit of the street for them to work on? They'll never really need more work than what they can get here and it'd mean a lot to me."  
  
Hmmm...

Well, you could still compete with them and teach them the lesson of hard work; people competed for jobs in the real world, after all.  
  
...  
  
Said nobody when talking about kids. So you sighed and nodded your head, offering a good-natured smile to Mrs. Thompson as you did so. "No worries Mrs. Thompson, I'll leave this bit of the street for your son and his friends. I'm sure I can find other jobs around the neighborhood that'll suit me just fine." Rosie beamed a bright smile as she lightly rapped you on the shoulder, causing you to fake rub it for pain as she chuckled.  
  
"You're a good kid as ever Peter, it's a shame you don't come by anymore." Say what you will about Rosie but she was a dear in her own right when she wasn't being completely and utterly terrifying. "Besides, you don't have to worry about finding work today. Actually got in a little talk around the neighborhood. The Petersons down the way have this big old task involving unpacking a lot of their Christmas decorations. Poor darlings are old so even the small stuff is a bit difficult for them, so they need the help. Now, Francis and his friends are a little too small for that but, well... do you think you could do it even with your asthma?"  
  
Oh, it'd be a cinch.  
  
"Well I can try." You offer up a far less confident sounding argument as you smile appreciatively at Rosie. "Thanks for the hint Mrs. Thompson, you're the best!" You quickly walk off, leaving Rosie to handle Francis and his friends while you start putting your fliers back up around the streets away from Francis' on your way to the Peterson's. Well, gotta love it when one good turn gets another.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


The shopkeeper popped her gum as she watched you approach with the thermals, a raised eyebrow as she appraised you for having picked out the ones with hearts stamped on them.  
  
...  
  
"It's for my sister." You lie about the very clearly male-sized and made thermals. The cashier girl rolls her eyes as she rings then up and you crack out your money. Why did these thermals have to look so comfy cozy? Then again, maybe the little pink hearts had something to do with that perception? You could think about that later while you stuffed them deep into your jacket to make sure nobody saw what you bought. If Flash Thompson ever saw that you bought these you'd never hear the end of it. Hell, if Ned ever saw you bought these he might not be able to stop giggling for an hour.


	30. The Grapes Of Wrath

"Oh God, okay so... the baby she leaves drowning in the river is metaphorical? It isn't just a baby being left in a river to drown?"  
  
"No, Ned, the [baby's already dead](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/JohnSteinbeck_TheGrapesOfWrath.jpg/200px-JohnSteinbeck_TheGrapesOfWrath.jpg) she's not actually killing it."  
  
"Then what's the point of putting it in the river? Why not bury it if she's not trying to drown it?"  
  
"I dunno Ned, it's some kind of metaphorical triumph."  
  
"Drowning a baby's supposed to be a metaphorical triumph?"  
  
...  
  
"It was the 30s man, I dunno. Besides, the baby was born dead Ned, it was all shriveled and blue because she didn't have enough food, remember?"  
  
"What the fuck man..."  
  
"Did you actually read the book ooooor-"  
  
"Sparknotes."  
  
"Ned you really gotta read the books man."  
  
"But Lit's boring, Peter and it's kind of insane judging by the books we're reading."  
  
"Still, you really need to learn this stuff if you want to do good in class. You know what the teacher's like, if she even suspects that you haven't actually read the books she'll haul you in front of the class and have you lead discussion. Besides that, even if you only read the Sparknotes you should've known the baby starved to death."  
  
...  
  
"I might've skimmed the Sparknotes."  
  
You sigh as you rub your forehead with both hands. You and Ned had gotten together to help go over a last bit of lit homework that Ned hadn't quite finished with all the excitement going on over Thanksgiving. With the due date coming up this Friday he really needed to get this big essay done so that he could at least have a good enough grade going into the finals. This was turning out to be harder than you thought because of two reasons; the first was that Ned was completely and utterly uninterested in doing the reading for the work. Ned knew what he liked and what he liked was computer sciences and the mathematics that went into it. Put Ned in a math class and the guy was basically a modern day Pythagoras... okay maybe that was exaggerating, but dude was good at math. Sciences were more a split bag but he usually did well in those classes.  
  
Pop Ned in a History or English class though and his interest drained out faster than water in the subways. You were at least 90% sure that Ned hadn't even touched his copy of Grapes of Wrath seeing as how when you'd come in it was collecting dust on his counter and you can't imagine that he was that much more attentive with the other books that were assigned over the semester...  
  
The second problem was that you weren't in much of a better position. You couldn't help yourself; science was your dig and to be really good at science it basically demanded you also be really good at math so those courses were just easy for you. Uncle Ben helped out with History a lot of the time and the genuine interest he shared in it couldn't help but rub off from time to time. Literature though? You weren't going to sit there and say that learning about these old stories had absolutely no value at all or that they couldn't even be interesting from time to time...  
  
But Grapes of Wrath... eeeeeeeh. That was just a really long, really depressing, really drawn out story. You got that it was made with the Great Depression in mind so that all fit but you just didn't really see the appeal yourself. So it was hard to get too worked up into getting Ned into the work yourself. At least when anime was sad or did something really out there and weird there was usually a lot of spectacle attached. Rosasharn's baby being stillborn because she didn't have enough food because of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl was just sad and miserable. Hopefully this next book that'd lead up to your finals, [Ethan Frome](http://17rg073sukbm1lmjk9jrehb643.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ethan-800x0-c-default.jpg), would be a bit more upbeat.  
  
There was, of course, a third reason why Ned was so distracted from work and, truth be told, it was your fault too, though more indirectly than the previous reason.  
  
"So... you fix up that hole in your costume? Gotta say, between seeing that gash and the wound in your side, I was wondering if you'd need a whole new sweatshirt." You winced a bit at that, the memory crawling up from your mind of the wound itself and the hard, painstaking work that went into fixing it...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


With a couple rolls of red and blue string at your side you carefully worked through the fabric of the sweatshirt as you slowly sewed it back together. You'd checked everything over and thankfully found that you wouldn't need a full patch job like with that bullet hole shot into your costume. Say what you will about Toomes but the feathers on that suit were _really_ sharp. Pretty much cut straight through your costume without tearing, leaving all the material there and only needing a stitch job in order to put everything back together. As you finished stitching one red section back together you swapped over to the blue string and began sewing that in. It was hard work, not the least because of your previous, grievous injuries...  
  
"Ow!" You winced, shaking out your hand as you accidentally pricked yourself on the needle again. Where was your Spider-Sense for that, you wondered idly as you sucked on your finger for a moment, letting your healing get to work in order to plug up the bleeding right quick. Yeah, all these pinpricks in your fingers you'd accidentally stabbed in weren't actually impeding your work but, damn, were they annoying and making the job harder.  
  
Thankfully your side and knuckles were pretty much all healed up by your powers at this point.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"Yeah I fixed it up as best I could. No hole in it and I managed to sew it together well enough that you can't really notice the stitches. Seems like my powers healed up my body too; pretty much no bruises on my knuckles anymore and you can barely notice any scarring at all from the wound." Ned nodded at all of that as he turned around. Oh man, oh no, he wasn't going to use this conversation to get out of reading Grapes of Wrath. You two were gonna buckle down-  
  
"That's good. Just been thinking about it a lot because Toomes has been on the news every since the attack, no surprise."  
  
-you were gonna finish these assignments, Ned was gonna read this darn book-  
  
"Some of the stuff he's been saying's been pretty nuts though. I know you and Liz talked about some of it before but hearing the ranting coming out of his own mouth was a whole other thing entirely, man."  
  
-you weren't gonna be derailed... you weren't-  
  
"Like, do you really think Osborn did what Toomes says he did? I mean, I don't doubt Toomes believes it, the dude hasn't exactly looked uncertain in what little snippets people have been getting out of him, but... woof. Dude's got those crazy eyes going, makes it look like he doesn't quite know what's actually going on. Plus, you know, bird costume. If he's as crazy as he looks then I dunno, can we really trust what he's saying?"  
  
...  
  
Dammit. You sigh as you put your own copy of the homework and Grapes to the side, rubbing your forehead as you nodded along. This had been something you'd been toying with in the back of your mind too. Especially after pretty much everyone who worked with him has come out single-file to say that Toomes lost his mind and that none of what he's been saying is true. It really was just Toomes versus the word of the law, of the record and of his own conspirators/coworkers/employees at this point.  
  
Still, you couldn't help but wander.

Honestly, how many variables did you have to keep track in this entire story? There was Toomes and his account, of course, a variable of highly questionable efficacy given the fact that Toomes was demonstrably insane. There was Liz who was far more put together than her dad but who had clearly backed him before she knew he was the Vulture and before he was outed. However, on the other hand, there was also all those things that lined up; Liz's story wasn't just about her father's rantings, it was about the weird timeline of events that lead up to the first Vulture attack and the tech 'disappearing' and that followed the attack. The harassment, the calls, the kidnapping. The question was how much of all of this did you actually know? Were those calls that Toomes was getting actually from Oscorp or was it something else? If the tech wasn't actually his then why would he be being harassed in such a way? There was so much you didn't know and what you did know raised further questions because, again, Toomes was where you primarily got your information counter to the official story. Still, all that said...  
  
"Well, from what Liz described there was at least a timeline of events that led up to everything. So at the very least, if Toomes is crazy, he didn't get the idea the tech was his from nowhere. Something happened. Even if it isn't as clear cut as Toomes described. Toomes can be crazy _and_ be right at the same time. These facts don't have to be mutually exclusive... though again, it might not be as clear cut as Toomes makes it out to be. If Toomes is lying, or honestly forgot, about anything given how crazy he is then the story might be more complicated than he's letting on, or that he can let on."  
  
"So even that being a possibility, that Toomes is literally so crazy that he's blanking out on key details or is specifically lying about them, you're thinking it's still possible for Oscorp to be _that_ ruthless?" Ned asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion. In truth you got the confusion; after all, you did think Toomes could be that crazy. No one got up in the middle of the day and decided that something like the Vulture suit was the right answer to a business deal gone awry or common thieving. Tony Stark built the Iron Man suit to help deal with Global Terrorism after he'd been kidnapped, Toomes built the Vulture suit to intimidate and possibly kill Osborn over his plans. No matter how you sliced it, someone like that was far gone.  
  
"He is nuts, absolutely, and I do think he's that crazy... but that being said, Liz was kidnapped and according to her it was likely Oscorp." Ned shrugged.  
  
"You don't think she's just going along with her dad's story on that?"  
  
"Even if she was she'd be right that they'd be the most likely suspect either way. Toomes did attack Oscorp as the Vulture, we know that for certain, so that really does leave Oscorp as the only body that'd have a reason to try and lash out at Toomes through his own daughter. I know it's a big if, that we can't know for certain if it was Oscorp that arranged for it, but if it was them then it'd give credence to Toomes' story about how ruthless they are. After all, kidnapping someone's daughter is a pretty extreme measure." An extreme measure in answer to another extreme measure, sure, but still an extreme measure. If Oscorp was willing to go this far to answer Toomes' attack, then it could signal any number of behaviors earlier on in their meetings.  
  
"I suppose. I guess he also knew which machine to pick out of Oscorp and steal which must've meant he was at least a little familiar with it." You nodded at Ned's analysis as you stroked your own chin for a moment, looking out the window.  
  
"I feel it in my gut Ned. There's more to this than one guy going off the rails and randomly attacking a business he didn't like. I just don't know enough to say for sure what that is or how much more there is to the story." You sigh a bit at that as you rub your forehead, feeling a slight headache come along. It usually did whenever you tried so hard to think this over, mostly because of the mounting frustration as, sooner or later, you'd end up chasing your own tail like this. Just running in circles over a lack of key information that must be out there but that you just didn't have.  
  
"Yeah, and it's not like Toomes is of that much help in that regard. That guy has his story and he's sticking to it, no matter how crazy it makes him look." You sighed at that as you shook your head, looking back at Ned.  
  
"You see Liz at school today? She wasn't looking too hot." You remarked, sadly, as Ned nodded to himself.  
  
"Yeah. Looks like she hasn't exactly slept well these past few days."  
  
"Yeah, she kinda reminded me of this woman I met while going out looking for odd jobs yesterday..."  
  


 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
You quickly walked through the neighborhood as you tried your best to get to the house in question as quickly as possible. Your fliers had panned out and now here you were getting called in to do some work for one of the people in your neighborhood! Hopefully soon you'd get paid and be able to make back even more of the money you'd spent on your Webbing and on the thermals you'd purchased over the weekend. You had to admit, you were a little zonked out after going back to school after the holiday but you couldn't let that get in your way!  
  
As you approached the house all was quiet as you knocked on the door, awaiting a response. You remember the voice on the other end of the line that had called you was a mature sounding woman's voice, informing you that she had a big job that she'd needed you to handle. Which was good; big job meant big pay so you were looking forward to helping this woman with whatever it was that she needed handled. You heard footsteps on the other side of the door as, with an unlock and a turn, the door opened up.  
  
You winced in sympathy as you saw the woman; a bedraggled hair of hair sat on her head as deep, heavy bags sat underneath her eyes. She looked like she hadn't slept in three days and, equally, it looked like the sweatpants and sweatshirt she was wearing hadn't been washed in the same amount of time. A pair of fuzzy bedroom slippers adorned her feet as she just tiredly stared out at you barely even wincing as, suddenly, the excited cries and shouts of two children echoed out from inside the house.  
  
"You the kid from the flier?"  
  
"Uh... yes?" You responded, carefully, as she nodded, yanking with her other hand to hand you a leash. You looked down the leash to see a little toy dog walk out from the open door, following the pull of the leash as it yapped and yammered.  
  
"Give him a good four laps around the bloc, let him do his business, bring him back." You nodded, about to ask yourself a question before she closed the door in your face.  
  
...  
  
You considered whether the money you made from this was worth the misbehaving dog that pissed on your shoes or staring into the horrible abyss of real, adult life... but in the end you can't turn down pay for what turned out to be easy work. **  
  
**

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

  
"Gotta imagine the press has been real interested in getting interviews from 'the Vulture's nest' I guess." Ned said with a short sigh as you were snapped from your memories, frowning slightly as you scratched the back of your head.  
  
"Yeah. Kinda sucks; she'd already been through the ringer on this once and was kidnapped to boot." The fact that she now had to go through the media rounds again because her dad was a lunatic just sucked, in your opinion.  
  
"Plus, well, now you're kind of infamous... or at least, Spider-Man is." Ned gave a slight wince as he leaned back in his chair. "Not only beat up the bad guy that trounced the police and Osborn's security but then also proceeded to get away from the police without them even noticing they'd lost him. Man they really grilled Monahan at the press conference over this entire thing."  
  
Yeah you couldn't help but give a huge sympathy wince thinking about that; it hadn't been your intention to do so, you had nothing against the police on a basic level. Still, fact remained that you'd kind of, sort of, really severely embarrassed the cops on two fronts and now the cops were being taken to task over it by pretty much everyone from every corner.

"I do kind of feel bad for them, especially for the cops who were there at the parade. They tried their best." I mean, really. How prepared were a bunch of cops with guns gonna be for some strange thing like the Vulture. Heck, you had superpowers and Toomes was able to fly through the air around you, nearly slicing you open with every pass he made at you. The guy was dangerous and normal humans, even with guns, were bound to have way more trouble with him than you were. Still, that being said, that was for the police on the ground at the parade. When it came to the entire police department though things got a little more... fuzzy.  
  
"On the other hand how much criticism is warranted at the police department in general is... debatable, I guess?" You shrug as you lean back in your seat. "I mean, they knew the Vulture was out there and had a beef against Osborn, so it might've been natural to assume that Vulture would try something while Osborn was out and about in the Macy's Parade. Heck, maybe they did try to prepare but, well, being there on the ground it didn't seem like they were all that prepared beyond a helicopter that took too long to get there." You sigh again as you rub your forehead. "Then again, I have no idea how any of this works. Maybe that was literally all they could do at the time. I mean, I don't know how the police budget is assigned or how quickly they can ask for new stuff from the city. Maybe that's literally all they had on hand."  
  
"Who knows man... well I mean, I guess the police and the mayor do but you know what I mean." You nodded at that as Ned leaned back in his seat. "Been hard to tell how things'll go down though. The way the news has been talking about it de Blasio seems to be fifty fifty on punishing cuts on benefits to get them to try harder and giving them more of a budget to get more resources. It's hard to tell how things'll roll out."  
  
Well that's just grand, you thought to yourself. Really gonna make things easier going forward either way... not. You shook your head at that as you looked over at Ned.  
  
"Eh, I didn't want to discredit the police by going out and stopping crimes... but, well."  
  
"Vigilante." You and Ned said at once as you both couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.  
  
"Well you can't help how people treat the police because of you doing good work or guys like Toomes doing bad, Pete. You can only keep putting the bad guys behind bars and keep doing a good job of being a superhero... so... you know, don't worry about it so much is what I'd say." Ned said as he grinned at you, causing a sly smile to form on your face.  
  
"You know that laid back attitude of yours is really helpful sometimes Ned... but in this case-" You quickly picked back up your copy of Grapes of Wrath, "-it'll get you in trouble. Let's get back to work rather than worrying over the police, like you said." Ned deflated slightly at that, wincing at the sight of the book.  
  
"I mean I didn't precisely say that..."  
  
"But it's what you meant and I appreciate your show of responsibility." You watch Ned lower his head in defeat, accepting his defeat as you laughed and prepared to get back to work with the book and the homework Ned needed to finish...  
  
...  
  
A rumble of your phone in your pocket drew your attention as you pulled it out, Ned curiously looking back up as you slid your finger across the screen and unlocked it to see the alert...  
  
...  
  
Reed Richard's shuttle was prepared to take off any minute.  
  
...  
  
.......  
  
.........  
  
"Wanna put off Grapes of Wrath to watch the Shuttle Launch?"  
  
...  
  
You shouldn't.  
  
You _really_ shouldn't.  
  
It'd be setting a bad example for your best friend...  
  
"Well I mean, what's another ten minutes right?"  
  
Ned laughed and clapped his hands as he immediately turned on the television, your eyes rolling slightly as you both immediately positioned yourselves in Ned's room for maximum comfort as you guys watched as Reed Richards, Susan and Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and Victor von Doom... seriously, what was that name, wave to the camera as they loaded up onto the rocket.  
  
Soon enough they'd be blasting off into space and spending months on the International Space Station where they'd study all things space, from radiation to the movement of the stars...  
  
And knowing Reed Richards, who knew how many leap forwards he'd take the study of the stars in just those few months!


	31. The Inferno

You took a slight breath as you clapped your hands on your knees, sitting patiently at the bus stop that you and Gwen agreed to meet up at. It wasn't that you had taken a ride to this stop or that Gwen was; when you'd texted Gwen earlier asking if she wanted to hang out, this just so happened to be the best spot where the two of you could meet up about halfway from each other. You hadn't really planned on being much of a hassle to Gwen when you messaged her. In all honest with school being the way it was and just being a kind of drain on your time and energy, you figured that taking a few hours out of your day to just hang out with a new friend might be good for you. Couldn't just do homework or work all day, after all, that'd make Peter Parker a dull, dull boy.  
  
So when you messaged Gwen you thought it'd be a simple thing; either she'd already be out and you'd just walk to meet her or she'd be home and maybe her dad could drive her to meet you somewhere. Instead when you called and asked if she wanted to hang out, there was a pause on the other end of the line as she seemed to consider it. At first you worried that maybe she had better things to do, things that maybe you were interrupting, but then instead she asked how willing you were to wait for her for a while in that case? Like she wanted to hang out but she'd have to walk because her dad was out and about. It had surprised you; you had noticed that Mr. Stacy hadn't been taking Gwen to school lately and that she'd been arriving on the bus, but you figured that just meant his shift changed up and maybe he'd be available for her after school when the bus dropped her off. However, that really didn't seem to be the case here; Gwen would have to meet you on foot if the two of you were going to hang out.  
  
You were fine with that of course, after all you were planning on walking anyway and hey if you two met each other halfway it wouldn't even be that much time. Thankfully she agreed with that notion and so here you were, waiting on-  
  
"Hey there Peter."  
  
"Hey Gwen." Speak of the Devil and he will appear, as Aunt May would like to say. You smiled as you stood up, waving to greet Gwen as she walked up to the bus stop. She was dressed for the weather as she approached, switching out some of her fall clothes for a heavier winter jacket as it became increasingly clear that old man winter was knocking on New York's door. The first snowfall was expected within the next couple of weeks and so a lot of people had jumped ahead with their plans for it. Gwen herself had a smile on her face as she came up to you and it put you at some ease that you hadn't horribly annoyed Gwen by asking her to hang out.  
  
"Hope I didn't take too long Peter. Sorry if I did, just really didn't have a ride to get me out and about sooner than this." Gwen offered with an apologetic nod as you just shook your hands, the two of you already starting to walk off as you both eased into a conversation.  
  
"Hey no worries, it's cool. I was planning on walking anyway and, honestly, I wasn't even at the stop long before you showed up." Just a few minutes, actually, which for you wasn't even all that long a wait, considering how long it could take Ned to get around if he couldn't procure a ride. Gwen nodded at that, even as she sighed a little.  
  
"Good, I'm glad to hear that at least. You know you don't have to walk in the future; if I can get a ride... big if at this point but still," You wince slightly at that tone as Gwen sighs and rolls her eyes, "-then I'm sure my dad would be more than willing to come pick you up and drop us or other folks off someplace. He does it when he can for me and my other friends, after all."  
  
"I appreciate it but, you know, I could use a bit of exercise at least. If I can't run and I can't do gym stuff the least I can do is walk a bit, right?" You say in a self-deprecating manner, a slight chuckle echoing in your throat as Gwen nodded at that. It was sad how straight-forwardly she believed that bit of a white lie but, then again, you suppose coming from your bespectacled, nerdy self and with your history of asthma that was totally buy-able.  
  
"I get that, and it's a pretty responsible thing to do."  
  
"Hey, what can I say, responsibility's my middle name these days." You say in a slightly glib tone as you can't help but slightly laugh to yourself about the situation. Gwen rolled her eyes in kind as she glanced over at you.  
  
"Just make sure you don't let that responsibility go to your head though. Don't want you to walk yourself into an asthma attack." You both chuckle at that, easing a bit from the initial unease over her 'late' arrival and into the proposition proper. "Anyway, I guess I'm more apologizing for my own sake too; been a bit of a busy week for the Stacy's so I haven't been as... quick to my appointments as I'd like to have been. Been late to a couple practices the band and I were supposed to have." You wince at that as you nod.  
  
"Well, I mean, your friends seem cool so I'm sure the three of them weren't too upset about it."  
  
"They weren't, and that was really sweet of them, like it is of you, but it's still just kind of frustrating to put that on other folks when... well, you know." Gwen shrugged as she adjusted her coat a bit.  
  
"I'm guessing your dad's been a little preoccupied with that whole Vulture mess, huh?" Gwen nodded slightly at that, snorting a bit as she looked over at you.  
  
"Yeah, no prizes for guessing right though. It's pretty obvious all things considered." You winced at that as Gwen scratched at her head, a frown on her face. "Yeah; by dad hasn't been able to drive me to school or pick me up. He's pretty much been working non-stop at the Police Department since Thanksgiving. I basically only see him real early in the morning and when he gets back home later at night. Been a real hassle." Gwen lamented as she put her hands in her coat pocket as you nodded your head very slowly. Sounded rough...  
  
Then again, work like this was pretty rough. You've been learning that lesson yourself the hard way these past few weeks.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx  
**  
"Any hits on your end Ned?" You asked as you quickly parkoured across the rooftops of Queens, phone in one hand and the other helping you to spring up over obstacles and spring over them, occasionally using the Web Shooter to help pull or swing you along to the next rooftop if your jumps weren't enough for you to clear on your own. Tonight had been a rather quiet night all told, no sign of much crime or much other wrongdoing being done. After your bust of the drug lab being moved last week you assumed that maybe things in Queens would be a bit quiet for a while... heck, who knew how your fight with Vulture might end up affecting other Boroughs.  
  
Then again, given how injured you were after that fight, would people even assume that the Spider-Man would be out and about again so soon? They'd probably think you were laid up somewhere recovering or, worse, bleeding out dead right? It wasn't exactly clear how people would respond to your little show from the previous weeks. Still, if you swung around Queens and Ned scanned the police communication lines then you could feel pretty safe in assuming that things were just quiet and that you didn't need to step in to stop much crime. Not that crime wasn't take place, it almost assuredly was but... well, if you or Ned couldn't find it or get to it in time, then hey, must've meant there wasn't a lot of it going on.  
  
As you stopped to stretch out and take a look around Ned's voice came up over the line. "Well let's see. I'm not picking up much traffic on other ends here... where are you right now, Peter?"  
  
"I'm down a ways on Queens Boulevard. It's actually pretty quiet around here too if you can't find..." Your eyes narrow as you catch sight of something, focusing in to try and make it out before they slowly widen.  
  
"Okay, scanning through the various things there... uh... let's see... uh... Peter. You might want to get to-"  
  
"Parker Towers, right?"  
  
"Yeah, how did-"  
  
"Call it a hunch." You said as you quickly turned off your phone, setting it deep in your backpack as you immediately began swinging like a madman.  
  
[The Parker Towers](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7265/7505509102_50209a3b53_o.jpg); a trio of buildings that looked like a set of asterisks smack dab in the middle of Queens. They were probably one of the most immediately recognizable structures in the Queens areas and served as one of the more densely packed and high-standing apartment buildings in the entire borough. Tons of people lived there and counted those buildings as the center of their lives in the neighborhood...  
  
And as you swung onto a nearby rooftop, setting down your backpack and quickly Webbing it down to secure it where people wouldn't quickly catch sigh of it, you watched as one of the apartment buildings were ablaze. A huge chunk of one of the three apartment buildings was rampaging with a fire that went up and down several floors damn near smack dab in the middle of the structure. Police and firefighters were storming their way to the inner-circle of the buildings, parking as best they could in order to try and rescue people and put out the fire. People on some of the lower floors had clearly already made a run for it but, judging by some people who were on floors bordering the fight, it had already spread through the elevators and the stairwells, leaving them to scream for help from the windows. People were on the roof desperately waving at news copters flying about and people were running up and down away from the spreading fires.  
  
Firefighters were doing their best to fight the fire but the intense heat and wind were forcing them to deal with another issue; keeping the fire from spreading to one of the other apartment buildings. People were busily being evacuated from the other two as everyone was already working tightly around the clock to keep things from raging out of control. Even if Queens wasn't the most densely packed neighborhood out of all of NYC, firefighters needed to work hard to make absolutely sure it didn't spread any further than this one building. Meaning they didn't have as much time for the people trapped...  
  
Despite the gravity of the situation, your first thought happened to be;  
  
"And to think, I just bought _thermals_."

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"Yeah, no surprise that Thanksgiving was rough on him... probably rough on everyone in the department." You said with a slow nod as Gwen nodded her head, combing a hand through her hair.  
  
"It was... but well, dad's always been the sort to take these sorts of things personally. Especially when it's... 'in his neighborhood'." Gwen gave a chortle, almost mocking, as she shook her head. "Then again, his definition of 'in his neighborhood' can be awfully fluid at times. I get what he means though now; Toomes lived in our neighborhood, Liz went to our school, my dad already investigated him once and missed that he was the Vulture of all people. He considered that a pretty personal failure that he missed that on his first pass... really personally." Gwen said with a frown as you did your best to smile.  
  
"Well hey, good news is that nobody died right? That's at least a positive." You see that Gwen smiles at that, nodding in agreement.  
  
"Yeah, that's always something to be grateful for. Especially considering how out of it Toomes seemed to be. No deaths is always good in the police's book according to dad..." Though, again, you see Gwen's face drop a bit as she arched her eyebrows. "Though the fact that Spider-Man needed to be there to make sure that'd be the case is a real sore point." You winced internally at that even as you nodded while sticking your hands in your pockets.  
  
"Yeah, I saw the presser. Chief got grilled for it... can't imagine your dad got off light considering what you said." Gwen's mouth quirked up at the corner as she let loose a slight whistle of a breath.  
  
"No, no he did not. Part of why he's been so busy lately is trying to figure out just what to do about all this. Kind of a crazy situation when someone our age is swinging about taking stuff like this into their own hands, you know."  
  
"Yeah," You said with a laugh, "-yeah totally crazy." You nodded in agreement. Hey, it really was crazy. The fact that you were a superhuman superhero busting up crimes and, at this point, literally fighting supervillains still blew your mind everytime you really stopped to think about it. You couldn't imagine how professionals whose job you were stepping on felt about this...  
  
Though increasingly you felt like you were getting a better and better idea...

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

  
You took a deep breath as you cracked your neck and shook out your hands. This would take a little bit of work to get done, the building was a fair distance in a few spots but... looking around, you quickly spot the nearest point to it. J.H.S. 190 Forest Hills, the local Junior High School. With a breath you take advantage of all eyes being on the building as you sprint and swing across the streets and ceilings of the local area, getting on over to the Junior High School before parkouring across its rooftop. You do your best to build up speed so that, upon reaching the edge of the building, you launch yourself as far as your enhanced speed and strength can allow you, the wind buzzing past your mask and whistling in your ears as you soared through the air. Just as you reached the furthest part of your leap you shot out a Webline and, with a cheer, you managed to tag the apartment building. You zipped and swung your way up and up, driving yourself harder and harder until-  
  
***Crash*  
**  
You slammed through the plate glass that separated the outside world from the interior of the building... and _immediately_ you could feel the baking heat. The interior of the building was a mixture of rugs, stone, wood and electronics that were all either fueling the fire or absorbing a lot of its heat, the flames on this floor raging and raging hard. You felt like you were on the inside of an oven, slowly boiling inside of your costume and thermals as you felt the heat immediately begin to sink in. Worse yet was the smoke; on the floor this fire started on it was dense and hard, making breathing a challenge as you took short, shallow breaths to try to keep from inhaling so much of the ashy air.  
  
Okay, first things first, extinguishers. You'd probably need one sooner or later so it was a good idea to keep an eye on them. A few looks and... aha! You fire out a Webline and snatch up one of the spare fire extinguishers that hadn't been grabbed on a nearby wall, pulling it back to you with your super strength as you immediately Webbed it to your body. You'd use this later when you had the best chance to. For now though, it was time to start navigating this burning building and find survivors. The roaring of the fire and the smoke made it hard, and it even made it hard to move. Not just because of how hot and how utterly invasive the smoke and its smell was, but because it dampened your vision, clouding it with dense layers of smoke and ash, while the flames themselves roared loudly with the wind gusting through.  
  
Still, seems as though the people inside this building still had a lot of life in them as you heard a great number of shouts from around the building. Traversing quickly to the nearest one, you find a group of nine; a kid, a handful of adults and one of their kids and an elderly couple. Immediately upon your arrival you see them tense up.  
  
"It's that vigilante guy from the parade."  
  
"The Spider-Man, what's he doing here?"  
  
Nerves and fears took over immediately; the fire had set them on edge enough and it was all they could do to not fly into a panic with your sudden arrival. You quickly raise your hands defensively, trying to show that you meant no harm.  
  
"Look, look... I'm not here to stir up trouble. I'm here to help, if you'll let me." The group is quiet, their distrust still evident, but they don't immediately fly into resisting you. With a sigh as you decide that, hey, that'll just have to be good enough for now, you quickly try to think of a way to get these people out of here. As you'd swung over to the building you'd realized that the fire, while it had spread to the nearest floors, it hadn't gone hugely high up or hugely low down yet. The next few floors below yours were still clear, as far as you could tell...  
  
Getting them to the ground floor with how short your Weblines were would take swinging down directly and getting in amidst the FDNY and NYPD, which wasn't exactly your plan. However...  
  
You quickly moved over to a window and forced it open with your strength, quickly scaling out of it and crawling down a few floors. Upon spotting the first one that seemed entirely fire free you busted open another plate glass window, avoiding cutting yourself once again, before firing a Webline up to stick at the fire floor in question while securing the other end down here.  
  
"Alright!" You called out as you crawled back up the way, pulling yourself back up to sit on the edge of the window as you pointed back down. "Down a ways it seems like there's a floor where there's no fire. I can carry you guys down the side of the building to get you down there immediately but we'll need to hurry. No telling when the fire will spread. So... any volunteers?"  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You frown underneath the mask as no one steps up, all of them glancing each other and outside the window to see the several hundred feet drop before fixing you with a fearful expression. Okay, fair, they probably didn't like the idea of getting dangled above a huge drop that could easily lead to their death. You sighed as he rubbed your forehead, trying to-  
  
"I'll go." You glance over and see that solo kid, tear marks down his cheeks as he walks up to you in a hurry. Oh thank God. You nod as you quickly scoop him up; the adults look worried about letting you just take the kid but they seem more fearful of you considering your feats of agility, Wall Crawling and strength. As you descended back down the Webline, one hand on it and the other securing the kid to you, the kid glanced over your way. "Hey... my mom and I got separated at the stairwell. I'm not sure if she made it up to the next floor or not... can you please go look for her?"  
  
...  
  
Well he said please. As if you could turn that down.  
  
"Absolutely kid, I'll find your mom." The little boy nodded and rubbed at his eyes, severely irritated by the smoke and the flames, as you deposit him through the window you broke open and sent him on his way. Climbing back up you give a look to the folks who hadn't had the courage to get down your way... and it seemed like they were finally ready to cooperate. Taking a small group at a time you deposited these folks down on the floor you'd opened up for them. Each of them quickly feeding you some information about people they'd seen before hitting their dead end. It'd be helpful for you to scout around with and so, with a nod of determination, you deposited the last person before jumping back up and getting back into the midst of the fire and the flames.  
  
Alright, first things first, get to the stairwell. You quickly moved through the flames and... well, you got burned as you moved. With the fire raging you couldn't help but get caught every now and then. Still, it wasn't too bad at least, for you anyway. The burns just hurt like Hell but it wasn't any worse than what Toomes did to you. You just had to grit your teeth and power on through. Making it to the stairwell the kid said he'd last seen his mom you find... wow, a small group of people actually. They must've all tried to get out this way only to get caught up when the fire and the smoke was carried by the stairwell's natural manipulation of the currents of air.  
  
You shook your head as you looked up; it wouldn't be easy to take them up to the roof from here or even a little higher. You looked down and... and...  
  
The smoke made it hard to tell but, sure enough, the fire was pretty much out on the stairway below you. You blinked, a bit blown away as to how this could've happened when you heard the trouncing of boots and the shouting of orders as extinguishers and hoses were being blasted.  
  
The Fire Department of New York, it seemed, was busy. Still, this was great, it looked like they pretty much cleared the way down the stairwell! If these people could just get down the stairs from their position, they'd be home free!  
  
Which meant-  
  
"Hold on folks, I'll get you a way out!" You shout, pulling the Webbed up Fire Extinguisher off your back as you started spraying down the stairwell between you and them. The fires were beaten back and the heat was forced to withdraw, if only for a moment. At least it was long enough to clear a path for the people stuck in the stairwell as they immediately began running down. You kept your attention hard locked on putting out any blazed that might threaten them with the extinguisher, only tearing your attention away long enough to notice the woman, worried and scared looking, as she asked after her son.  
  
"He's already a few floors down ma'am, keep going." You didn't take much time to notice whether she expressed any gratitude or not as the extinguisher gave out, the fire slowly returning as the last of the folk ran down to meet the embrace of the firefighters. You didn't have time to wait and see that though, especially if the FDNY took as much exception to you as the NYPD. You needed to get moving; according to the folks you talked to there were definitely more people on this floor. You could still hear some faint cries and you hadn't come across a couple of the people described by the folks you saved. So you kept moving, kept ducking and dodging and burning when the fire got way too close for comfort. You eventually found a couple trapped in the middle of the floor, surrounded by the fire. They must've noticed it too late and it spread around them, forcing them to stay in the middle.  
  
They were dehydrated, they were sweating buckets and they were just out of it, their cries quiet as they tried to call for help. Heck, when you arrived it seemed like they were half-blind from the smoke, their throats raw as they felt your arrival and asked... if you were a firefighter.  
  
...  
  
You know what, you'd take it. You quickly grabbed them up, putting them both on your back as you tried to think of the last stairwell you saw. It was a ways away from here... but you could make it in good time. You'd just... well, you'd have to take some risks. If you were going to keep these people out of the fire, you'd have to put yourself at a bit more of a risk while parkouring around. Thankfully your natural agility and their own lack of resistance made that easy enough... you only scalded your hand as part of a landing when you gripped onto a particularly hot bit of stone using your Wall Crawling.  
  
Alright Spider-Man just keep moving, just keep heading for the stairwell and you'll get these people out of here. They'll be safe and you'll be able to get to the rest of the...  
  
The...  
  
Ah.  
  
As you were just about to force open the door of the nearest stairwell a group of firefighters pushed their way through. An axe, extinguishers and a hose at the ready as they walked out into the main floor of the blaze. You and them immediately met eyes as you stared back at one and other in surprise; your burnt up suit thoroughly drenched in sweat and being caked in the ash and thickness of the smoke, their own bodies somewhat covered in the soot of their work and, behind their masks, beads of sweat just bearing down.  
  
...  
  
This potentially just got awkward...  
  
_"Jim, we've got two more over here on the other end of the floor. We can't find the other two folks that the other survivors said were up here. Any sight on them?"_ The call over the radio on them blared out as you flinched; wow the FDNY had been busy apparently. You and the firefighters all stared down for a moment, the head of this group, Jim, glancing over at the two people you had on your back... before nodding down toward the ground.  
  
"Yeah, sure, no problem." You said quickly as you lowered the both of them down, the other firefighters immediately taking them and escorting them down the stairwell as they went. Jim nodded as he leaned over to his radio.  
  
"We found them, they're in pretty rough shape but so long as we get some water in them I think they'll recover. Get them down to the paramedics to be sure though." The radio blinked as the stalemate went on.  
  
_"Roger roger. We've contained the fire down here and the boys who went up the next floor have found most of the rest of the folks trapped... but we're still having trouble nailing down a couple of them. We can't hear them and we're having a tough time of it finding them in the mix."  
_  
...  
  
Well that was all the encouragement you needed. You immediately jumped up and over the firemen, swinging into the stairwell and ascending up as the group of professional rescuers cried out for you as you went. You didn't stop though as you quickly ascended up to the next floor. Okay, time to get moving Spidey. You quickly broke out into a run, doing your best to dip and duck around fires that erupted out even on this floor though to mixed results. An apartment as your side damn near blew up with flames, breaking out their windows and scorching you lightly as you passed. You coughed and wheezed as even with your superhuman abilities the constant presence of the heat and the smoke was making you feel totally sick.  
  
Still, your quicker movement gave you the edge; while you were sure the rest of the firefighters were still looking, you managed to find the last couple in question. Blocked off by another couple flaming apartments you quickly moved as best you could, getting them out and away and quickly moving back to the stairwell you'd just ascended. Sure enough some of the firefighters you'd ducked out on had followed you and, well, you got to see the surprise evident on their faces when you brought the next two folk before them, laying them out. Jim, again, just fixed you with an odd look as he saw this display, before leaning back over to his radio.  
  
"HQ this is Jim, found the last two up here while pursuing the Spider-Man. Bringing them back down for evacuation ASAP."  
_  
"Fantastic work. According to some of the boys the fire's already being contained on most of the floors. We had good timing and a lot of grit; the people on the roof should be safe up there until we can get the fires dealt with and they can come down. That should be everyone, in that case."  
_  
You sighed in relief at that, rubbing at your sweaty forehead and having all that perspiration sink into the mask of your costume. Good, that was good. A huge load off of your mind...  
  
_"With that said, have you made any additional sightings of the Spider-Man? NYPD is ready to move into position."  
_  
...  
  
Only for another one to be replaced. You sweat nervously as you look between the firefighters, armed with hoses and extinguishers, yes, but also a couple axes for breaking apart burning debris and doors. You really didn't like the sight of them after hearing that order query over the radio. There was a stalemate between you and the members of the Fire Department before you as you all squared off, Jim fixing you with a... weird look before leaning over to his radio.  
  
"Can confirm a spotting of the Spider-Man vigilante... we last saw him heading to the roof. Think he might believe the people up there need an immediate evac. Copters should be able to intercept him up there."  
  
_"Roger roger, NYPD will begin moving assets for the intercept."  
_  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You blink at that, honestly surprised as Jim silenced his radio, fixing you with a slight look. It wasn't happy, it wasn't even necessarily congratulatory. It was actually kind of accusatory when you got right down to it... still, between what he said and the look, the message was clear;  
  
'Scram kid, before I change my mind.'  
  
"Uh... thanks?" You offer with a quick half-salute before you break out into a sprint for the nearest window. As the wind hit your face you couldn't help but take one look back at the firefighters... who by this point had all but abandoned you in order to get to the job of containing the blaze up on this floor, purposefully paying you no mind...  
  
Well.  
  
Saved nearly a couple dozen people and helped New York's best in keeping a deadly situation together...  
  
If that didn't fill you up with a giddy sort of pride as you jumped out the window, dived a ways and then began swinging off once you hit street level, you weren't quite sure what would.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

Or, Heck, maybe you weren't getting a better idea and people were more complicated than just what type of job they held. That was something else you were learning more and more as time went on. Still, this was a topic that was hitting a little too close to home for you so...  
  
"Still, no doubt the person who got the worst of this was Liz. First the kidnapping, now this? Jeez Louise." You shook your head at that as you tried to naturally change the topic, something Gwen herself seemed equally eager for as she just nodded, a sad look on her face.  
  
"God, I know. I can't believe that Liz has been having such a shitty month. Like, what else could happen to her at this point?" Gwen shook her head as she combed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Liz and I never exactly hung out much or anything but she never seemed like a bad sort. Heck, she seems really nice so it sucks that all this is coming down on her head all at once." Gwen strummed her fingers against her legs in a nervous gesture as she sighed. "Tried my best to talk to her during the school week to give her my condolences and to, you know, kind of indirectly apologize. My dad feels terrible that not only did the police not prevent her kidnapping but that he didn't catch onto what her dad was up to before it was too late." Yeah, you could imagine.  
  
"What'd Liz say?"  
  
"Honestly, she didn't say much... which was probably even worse than her being angry at me because my dad and the police couldn't have stopped all this. She seems really out of it... Heck, you know how she's been treating Harry these past few months, right?"  
  
"Uh... kind of standoffish?" You were being nice; she was practically downright hostile. Considering what she thought his father was up to, it wasn't a surprise... still didn't make her being so uncomfortable with Harry any less awkward.  
  
"Say what you will about him but he did try to offer his sympathies... and she just let him. Heck, she said apologized to him for what happened." Wow, seriously? You didn't voice that but you were sure it was on your face as Gwen nodded. "I know. With how pissed she seemed at him I figured she didn't like him because Harry can be... you know, Harry." You didn't know but you just nodded with Gwen, which she seemed to notice. "Sorry, you don't actually know Harry all that well."  
  
...  
  
"You do?" Gwen took a slight breath through her teeth as she shrugged.  
  
"Long story." She waved it off before moving on. "Anyway, it was just kind of surreal... then again, I suppose I should be proud of her, right? She put aside whatever she disliked about Harry to apologize for her dad... you know. Trying to kill him. I think that's nice of her... even if she's still having Flash not let Harry hang. Probably the other good thing is that Flash has pretty much been as on top of all this as he can be to help her out with moving in permanently with her mom and just... you know, keeping her company. For as much of a jerk as he can be at least he's decent with Liz, right?"  
  
Yeah, thankfully. That was decent of Flash and... yeah, considering what you knew, that was real big of Liz to do.

"Yeah, his family was actually over at my house for Thanksgiving. You should have seen him when the news broke, he was on his phone and trying to get in touch with her immediately. You know, say what you will about the guy, but anyone with eyes can see he really cares about her." You might not have been Flash's biggest fan, you might not've liked the way the guy acted around you or treated you and Ned with his jabs and teasing. However, there was kind of no denying that, in the midst of all of this trouble that Liz and her family were facing, that he was doing his best and being a stand up sort of guy.  
  
"Yeah; I still think he's a meathead but, hey, even meatheads can be nice people sometimes, right?" Gwen remarked as you both shrugged at that, though in this case it was undeniably true.  
  
"Anyway, it really is nice to hear that Liz did that. I mean, hell, I'm not even sure what a person is supposed to do in Liz's shoes. What would anyone do in her shoes considering what she's been through?" Honestly you yourself didn't know how you'd react if you were faced with a similar situation, which was kind of scary. "Still, the fact she isn't lashing out at anyone is... well, it's big of her. It says something about her character." Gwen nodded in agreement with that as she looked over your way.  
  
"Yeah, it is. It's easy to get mad or frustrated in situations even less screwed up than what Liz went through but she's not taking it out on anyone else at school. Hopefully she's not internalizing it or pointing it at... well, family aside from Toomes. That wouldn't be helpful." You nod at that as you pull your jacket up closer around your neck.  
  
"Yeah; hopefully she's just kind of taking out what frustration she might have on her dad or something healthy. She shouldn't blame herself or her family for what Adrian did, and it'd be a shame if she did." You both nodded in agreement at that as you both continued to walk along. "Ugh, enough of this though. I didn't want to come out here so we could bum each other out with that kind of stuff." Gwen looked over at you with a grin. "So Peter, what have you been up to? Aside from school that is? Nothing too big I hope, you know finals are coming up." You grin sheepishly at that.  
  
"Well I have been doing a little work on the side... just a little something... though, admittedly, it did get pretty big recently." You sweat as you remember the heat, remember the stress. Remember everything... but you wouldn't bring it up here with Gwen. Like she said, you two didn't come here to get depressed, you both came here to just hang out and have fun... you wouldn't let her in on the burden you bore from your work.  
  
The horrible, nightmarish, awful burden...

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
It was... God. It was suffocating. It was almost like being in the fire all over again. It was all around you, wrapping around your neck and choking the life out of you. It was all encompassing, you were lost, this goes there, that went here, but where did that go to here and where did here go when it came to that? Blinking lights and blaring sounds greeted you, disorienting you even more than the smoke and alarms and fire of the Parker Towers. You could feel your head spin, your knees shake. God... just looking at all of this made you want to puke...  
  
"Are you getting anywhere with my VCR there, sunny boy?"  
  
"Uh, still working on it ma'am."  
  
You walked up to this elderly woman's house and asked her if she needed any help while scouting for jobs. Boy howdy, did she. Underneath a wide TV screen was a maze of electronic devices that tangled and intermingled their wires, a mess of cords and technology that easily went back thirty years. Some of these things you hadn't really ever heard of before... and some of them only barely. A VCR, in 2018? What the Hell even _was_ Betamax? Were you for real? It was just untangling cords that this old lady was having you do though... she was having you set the clocks...  
  
On all of them.  
  
You swore that if the pay wasn't good you would've walked right out of there without a second thought.  
  
"That's good. Be sure to be careful with the Laserdisc player though! It's a bit of an old girl at this point."  
  
...  
  
Were you being pranked?

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

No.  
  
No Gwen didn't need to know about that.  
  
Instead you two would just go along and chat in a friendly manner about this or that, mutually complaining a bit about finals.  
  
It'd be a good walk... but one you couldn't focus on entirely...  
  
You never did figure out what a Betamax was.


	32. Remembering The Past

You quickly stuff your backpack full of the study guides sent back with you by the school as you prepare yourself for a trip to the ESU Library. With next week being what the Juniors and Seniors of Midtown politely and somewhat jokingly referred to as 'Cram Week' you were beginning to see what exactly they had been talking about during your Freshman year. As a Freshman there hadn't been a lot of pressure on you performance-wise, as far as you were concerned. High School in your Freshman Year honestly just kind of felt like another year of Junior High and, heck, if things kept going at that pace then you were fairly certain that you'd hold up just fine and that High School wouldn't be as hard as people told you it would be.  
  
Then came the guides. The workbooks, the sheets, the outline of what you should be studying and what you'd be studying over the course of the next week. You swore, it was almost like they were taking everything they failed to get through over the course of the Semester and just cramming it into the last week possible to get you all at least somewhat prepared for the Finals that would, slowly but surely, prepare you all for your ACTs and SATs at the end of the year. Needless to say the sudden influx of stuff to do had taken you by surprise... but not necessarily in a bad way. You were still ready to keep going forward and, Heck, here you were ready to get a move on to the library specifically to study. This would all be over soon enough and then you'd enjoy a nice, long Winter Break.  
  
So as you quickly ran down the stairs you did so with the full purpose and intention of walking out that front door. Maybe you could ask Aunt May or Uncle Ben for a ride but... right, yeah, Uncle Ben was still working this weekend. Those last minute rush orders were starting to pile up heavy on him. Aunt May was home though so you turned the corner to see if you could ask her for a lift... only to see her busy at work on a little old laptop she kept for her business, a focused frown on her face as she scanned up and down the screen as she nibbled on one of her knuckles thoughtfully. Oh, Aunt May looked really into something herself to. Well, that was okay, you could just walk to the library in that case. It'd take a while, sure, but...  
  
"Dear me... when did I fall so far behind..."  
  
...  
  
It probably didn't mean much. Aunt May was just working. You could just walk out that door and get to the library.  
  
...  
  
You set your backpack down quietly as you walk over to Aunt May as softly as you could, taking a look over her shoulder before you could speak. You were... surprised. You'd come up expecting Aunt May to be looking at bills or something serious, a payment or two that she'd fallen behind on or something. Instead you're left with a distinct sense of surprise and befuddlement when you're greeted with the sight of... Buzzfeed. A Buzzfeed article, to be precise, as well as tabs for other online sites with various articles in their titles.  
  
"Uh, browsing Buzzfeed, Aunt May?" You speak up, finally, not quite over your surprise, as Aunt May jumped a bit.  
  
"Oh, Peter!" Your aunt declared as she pressed a hand to her heart, laughing slightly as she shook her head quickly. "Dear me, I didn't hear you coming at all. I must have my head so buried in this laptop of mine that I wouldn't have noticed it if you sat down right beside me." Aunt May laughed slightly at that as she set her laptop to the side for a moment so she could turn to face you. "Is there something you need Peter?" There was, kind of, but now for the moment you were kind of more interested in... well, this.  
  
"Sort of but, you know... Buzzfeed, Aunt May? I didn't figure you for the type." You didn't even know Aunt May knew what Buzzfeed was in the first place. Aunt May smiled as she nodded her head.  
  
"Well, I don't frequent it, in fact I do believe this is probably my first time glancing through it without a link having been sent to me over Facebook." That explains it. "I was just Googling a few things to help for the holidays coming up and this ended up being one of the results so... well, I figured no harm." You glanced over at the title of the article; it was a piece about the sorts of things teenagers liked these days... done in a pretty typical Buzzfeed style of it just being single pictures in a numbered list with the names of the things they liked... some of them weren't even things. ['Worshiping Kanye West'](https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/things-teens-think-are-cool-these-days) at #7... what?  
  
"And uh... how has that been going?"  
  
...  
  
"I'm going to be honest Peter, I don't think this article actually knows what it's talking about." You chortle a bit at that and nod in agreement.  
  
"Yeah that sounds about right, Aunt May." You sit down beside May as you fold your hands together, a curious look on your face. "Aunt May why are you even looking up this kind of stuff anyway? Trying to get hip and with it, or something?" At that a loud bark of laughter escapes Aunt May as she waves you off.  
  
"Goodness Peter, no. I'm a bit too old to be 'hip and with it' these days. Afraid my chance to be cool fell out when people turned on mini-dresses as a style." Aunt May had herself a good laugh as you smiled at that. "No, no. It's just something I do when Christmas ends up coming along. It's my busiest time of year as far as commissions and custom orders go and I like to be able to stay at the top of my A-game as far as making a quality product in a timely manner. So I like to get a little practice in early with the kinds of things kids like these days. The Macy's Parade usually helps by letting me see the various new characters they bring up... but, well..."  
  
Vulture.  
  
"Yeah, kind of a bad year to use the parade for a point of reference." You said sheepishly with a scratch of your neck as Aunt May nodded.  
  
"Indeed. So I've been doing my best to try and figure out what you kids like these days. I know you and Ned like your animes and what not and while I'm pretty good at making Pikachu at this point it's not usually the sort of thing I get a lot of custom orders for... at least not ones I would actually agree to fill."  
  
...  
  
That last part actually made you laugh nervously, wondering just what kind of stuff Aunt May would've been asked to make that she would've flat out refused.

"Well... you can probably find the parade line up online if you haven't looked already. There's probably still a listing somewhere, probably on Macy's website." You shrugged at that as you looked over Aunt May's shoulder to take a look at her laptop. A quick Google search and, what do you know;  
  
"2018 Macy's Parade lineup. Would you look at that. Thank you Peter, I'll definitely have to remember this for next year." Aunt May chuckled shaking her head at that as she pressed a couple fingers to her forehead. "Dear me, it's finally happening. You're aunt's becoming an old lady, Peter. Couldn't even think to Google the answer to this. Next thing you know I'll be asking you to program my electronics for me because I just can't figure it out. The teasing glint in Aunt May's eyes cause you to shiver as you scratched your arm.  
  
"Aunt May! I told you about that in confidence! Please don't remind me of that job."  
  
Laserdisc. There was honestly still someone out there in the world with a Laserdisc player. Not just that, but a VHS player and Gods knew what else. The wires, you dreamt of them at night. They were suffocating you like a million tiny fibers around your neck! All hooked up to woefully outdated media formats! It had been an experience you'd shared with Aunt May under the strictest confidence as a way to cope with your horrific experience! You wouldn't have her throw that back in your face like that...  
  
...  
  
Okay maybe you were being a bit of a drama queen there.  
  
"Sorry Peter, but you have to admit it is rather funny. I couldn't even imagine keeping so many players around. Did you find yourself another little job to try and forget about it, dear?"  
  
"Unfortunately not this time. Think I might have some competition out there eating up some of the work... people probably saving up for a Switch or something." You wave it off as you lean back in your seat, Aunt May putting a hand to her chin curiously.  
  
"So close to Christmas though?" You smiled at that before shrugging.  
  
"Well, either that or they're like me and they just have a hobby they need some extra money for." You say, nonchalantly, so as to hint towards your chemistry set and not toward being a Superhero. Aunt May just nodded in understanding at that as you quickly moved onto your next beat. "Anyway, back to the main point. The lists idea isn't bad in and of itself either. You just need to narrow your searches a bit more, things like popular cartoons, games and movies for kids. Rather than just a general 'Things teens think are cool'."  
  
"I know, I just figured it'd be pretty all encompassing... then again, I suppose I should've figured people wouldn't be ordering sewn up food or coffees for Christmas." Aunt May added with a slight laugh as you rolled your eyes.  
  
"Oh I wouldn't be too sure Aunt May. I'm sure there's some kids out there who'd love a stuffed Avocado for Christmas." In all honesty you were really only half joking. "But also, you know, check the dates. That article is from 2014 anyway... it's a little dated."  
  
"I know, I just figured it was only five years out of date. Even if some of the fads died off I figured maybe some of the more enduring things would stick around. After all, with all these remakes being made and all..." Well... Aunt May had you there.  
  
"Think it might be a bit tough to decide on what's gonna be an enduring cultural thing and what's just a fad after only five years though Aunt May." Your aunt shrugged at that, though she did nod along in some agreement.  
  
"I suppose. Though my mother did always say she knew Elvis would be big from the moment she laid eyes on him. Then again, my mother was prone to exaggeration from time to time." You chuckled at the mirth evident in Aunt May's eyes before you start going through some ideas yourself.  
  
"If I had to list some things...a video game called Fortnite, cartoons like Steven Universe, Paw Patrol and the current My Little Pony. Those are all pretty popular with kids right now."  
  
"My goodness, My Little Pony?" Aunt May laughed a bit at that, causing you to grin as you looked at her questioningly. "God, I remember when that first came out. I was a little old to be the direct market for it at the time; I wasn't much of a little girl by the time 1981 was coming around. I fancied myself quite the adult, despite how little I still understood about it even then. Still, so many of my friends and young people I knew picked that up even as a hobby to paint them. I've even painted a few of them in my time for folks. It's still going on?"  
  
"Yeah, Transformers too." Though you decided not to bring up the odd states that both fandoms had evolved into, especially with Friendship is Magic.  
  
"Well I suppose that supports your earlier point about not knowing what's going to be enduring in the short time after it comes out. Transformers and My Little Pony. I would've figured they'd go the way of the pet rock." You shrug your shoulders at that, unsure of the delicate and often bizarre workings of what stays popular in, well, popular culture, as Aunt May taps her chin. "now, Fortnite. I've heard of that; Rosie talks about how Francis likes to play that game." You couldn't even say you were surprised. Fortnite was a hugely popular game with kids Francis' age and even if he didn't come off as the sort of kid who'd love watching Ninja, it was easy to guess that he'd probably played and still does play Fortnite regularly.  
  
"Can't say that it'd be especially in my wheelhouse to make plush dolls or such for something like that."  
  
"Not that big into the guns?" You asked, curious as Aunt May laughed slightly.  
  
"Oh no, no no no Peter. Goodness, if it were that I wouldn't be making Iron Man dolls for some of the folks who want them. No, no. I just mean that... well, the designs are a little... stale?" Aunt May said with a shrug. "Rosie showed me screenshots of it and it seems like they're all just normal people holstering around firearms. Which is a little stale, if you ask me."  
  
"There're skins that the game sells to make the characters look more appealing..."  
  
...  
  
Huh.  
  
So that was the impetus behind making the base models look so boring.  
  
You didn't even realize that until you just said that out loud.  
  
"But no, no. I'm not uncomfortable with guns Peter. Just a couple years ago I think it was I got commissioned to make the cutest little plush of this big brute in armor that... well, it wasn't quite as [inviting](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/deathbattlefanon/images/c/cd/Doomguy_2016.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20160530165618) looking at that Stark's, I'll tell you that. Besides, I couldn't be too uncomfortable with it considering..." Aunt May pauses at that, thinking for a moment as you smile.  
  
"Oh come on Aunt May, you can't start up like you've got some story to tell and then leave me hanging." Your Aunt's eyes twinkled as she shook her head.  
  
"Oh, just nostalgic for a moment Peter. You see, back when I was a little girl growing up my father, of course, wanted a son or two to take up to Rockland County to hunt whitetail deer, like his father did before him and so on and so on. Of course, my poor father, it ended up just being my sister and I that he and my mother ended up having. Still, my father was a determined man; he wasn't going to let having daughters stop him from having his bonding moments with his children. So whenever November would roll around my father would wake us up early, bundle us up and take the drive out of the city and up to Rockland.  
  
"It wasn't exactly my thing of course, even back then I was far more interested in art and making little things than I necessarily was in being out in the cold November air waiting to shoot at deer. Still... I can't help but look back on that fondly. It wasn't exactly common for men to take their daughters out to do that sort of thing... but my father had us and he wanted to hand down his traditions to us and spend a little time with us on the side. Not a lot of men would've been willing to do that, even with all the hub-bub going around during my youth during the 60s and 70s. However, my father was stubborn... and that stubbornness gave my sister and I some good memories."  
  
...  
  
Aw, that sounded-  
  
"That said, I probably still would've preferred being able to sleep in, nostalgic memories or not. I still have nightmares where I wake up at 2 A.M. Self-fulfilling prophecies, sadly." Aunt May said with a wry chuckle that you couldn't help but laugh at. "What about you Peter? Is there anything in particular you like? I know you like that Japanese animation that's gotten so popular these past couple decades."

You honestly couldn't help but smile. You'd heard some people refer to anime as anything from 'Japanese Animation' to the superbly bizarre 'Japanimation' but to hear Aunt May refer to it using either of those two terms... well, it was surprisingly kind of adorable. You really couldn't help yourself. Still, you try to hide your amusement behind a small layer of enthusiasm as you talked about something you really did like. After all, she was nice enough to ask.  
  
"Yeah, Ned and I are pretty into it. Honestly it'd be pretty easy for me to list off about a dozen shows we really like off the top of my head." Way more if you were being honest but then that might raise the question of how you and Ned were consuming so much anime and... well, you didn't have it in your heart to admit to your aunt that you were a filthy pirate. "Still, if we're talking about something recent then Ned and I have been watching this show called JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The anime's been getting into the fifth part and we've been having a lot of fun watching it."  
  
"5th Part? So like a Season?" You waffle your hand back and forth at that as you give her a nod.  
  
"Kind of, though you could argue that two parts are one season and that one part had two seasons... it's complicated. Point is, we've been having fun with it." You watch as your Aunt smiled and nodded at that.  
  
"Well Peter I'm glad that you and Ned can have little experiences like this. Boys your age really should have interests that they enjoy greatly, even if they do seem a little strange to the old folks like your uncle and I." You grin and roll your eyes at that as Aunt May looks over at the backpack you'd put down earlier before talking to May. "Now then, as fun as this was Peter I do have a bit of work to do myself to prepare and it seems like you've got somewhere you need to be too."  
  
"Oh, right! I wanted to go to ESU to study today!" You said, slapping your forehead as you quickly ran over and picked your backpack back up. "Thanks Aunt May, don't go looking around sites like Buzzfeed for stuff like that again, love you!" You hear your aunt laugh as you exited the house.  
  
"Love you too Peter, and slow down a little! ESU isn't going anywhere, no need to exert yourself!" You slow down a bit and nod back at Aunt May before leaving the house. Really, it did seem like that in so many ways Aunt May really was keeping an eye out for you and for the people around her. Your aunt was way too sweet, like that...  
  
Now to actually get to ESU with enough time to get some serious studying done.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"Are you a student here at ESU?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Are you eighteen years or older?"  
  
"Still no."  
  
"Feel free to browse through our collection of books. As you are not a student here at ESU you may not reserve or rent a book from this library and any attempts to take a book from the property will see you removed from not just this library but Empire State University's Campus. Thank you and have a nice day."  
  
...  
  
Did they just have the desk people memorize this and say it to anyone who wasn't a student here? You can't imagine that was either the most productive use of their time or the most fun.  
  
Still, didn't matter. You were here now and you were ready to get to studying. No time to slouch there, Parker.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

You heaved a sigh as you walked back into the house, heaving a small breath as you shook out your head. Well, studying at ESU had been... well, interesting. Lots of books there and a lot of them were a few levels above what you were learning at Midtown... but, well, good news was that you made progress. Some pretty solid process too, if you did say so yourself. As you left your backpack down by the door, no point in picking it up seeing as how you were going to spend the rest of the night laying back and it had everything you needed for school tomorrow in it anyway, you sauntered on over to the kitchen. A soda sounded really good right about now. As you did so you noticed the local news blaring. Must've been about the Richard's mission; they'd successfully been flown up to the space station so people were keen on knowing how Richards of all people was adjusting... and, more importantly, what he was working on.  
  
 _["Again, if you're just joining us this evening, ABCNY7 is reporting that former President George H. Walker Bush has passed away this evening. At 94 years old, the 41st President of the United States-"](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/12/01/george-hw-bush-dead-gangel-bpr-ctn-vpx.cnn)_  
  
...  
  
Oh.  
  
Uh...  
  
You actually doubled back for a moment to look back at the TV screen; sure enough it wasn't your ears playing a trick, that really old guy who was President when Uncle Ben went off to Kuwait was dead. You personally didn't really have an attachment to the guy, kind of the thing of being so young that the only Presidents you really strongly remember and know was this last two. Still, knowing the guy had a big part to play in Uncle Ben's life was dead now was-  
  
"Now, you're sure it's still a good fit? I can make some extra adjustments to keep you comfortable."  
  
"You've already done just fine May, but thank you. This'll do just fine."  
  
-... surprising? You blinked in surprise as you watched Aunt May and Uncle Ben climb down the stairs, Aunt May looking much the same as she did when you left earlier today and Uncle Ben... well, dressed head to toe in the [blue and black service uniform](https://www.army.mil/e2/-images/2008/08/21/21201/size0-army.mil-2008-08-26-125145.jpg) you saw usually only come out on 4th of July or Veteran's Day or similar celebrations.  
  
"Ah Peter, good, you're home. Was worried I wouldn't catch you before heading out." You tilted your head to the side at that as you watched Uncle Ben fiddle with the buttons on his uniform.  
  
"Going out, Uncle Ben?" You asked, already having an idea as to why as you watched your Uncle nod.  
  
"Got a call from a few guys who served in Kuwait in and around NYC. They were heading down to the capitol to pay their respects to the old Commander-in-Chief and invited me along." You nodded, your suspicions confirmed as Uncle Ben adjusted the uniform some more with Aunt May's help here and there. "Gonna be driving down to D.C. with them to do so. Sadly it's gonna eat into some of my vacation days but... well, this felt like an important event to spend them on." Aunt May nodded in agreement, as did you, as the older man smiled at you.  
  
"So while I'm gone I'm gonna be looking for you to be the man of the house Peter. You be sure to listen to May and help keep an eye on the place while I'm off down in D.C., alright?" You smiled at that, despite the occasion, as... well, you snapped a quick salute to your snazzily suited up Uncle.  
  
"Sure thing Uncle Ben. You can trust me. I'll make sure Aunt May doesn't go too crazy while you're out of town." Your aunt chuckled and rolled her eyes, the grey haired man in front of you just laughing a great big belly laugh as he nodded.  
  
"I'm sure you will Peter. I wouldn't feel so comfortable going if I didn't know you'd be responsible." You smiled at that vote of confidence as your uncle tussled your hair. "I'm sure I'll be back before they start but if something pops up, you be sure to do well on your finals, okay sport?" You nod again as Aunt May and Uncle Ben quickly pass you, heading to the garage. You heaved a sigh as you walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch.  
  
Well, at least the time Uncle Ben would be gone would be a quiet one. You'd be cramming for pretty much the entire week this week, Toomes was safely behind bars and Spider-Man had made a nice appearance fighting some fires soon after. So you had a lot of your bases covered. Should be pretty easy to be safe and responsible on what was shaping up to be a pretty boring week, all things considered.  
  
 _"Returning to our other top story of the evening, a break in at the Guggenheim last night still remains unsolved, according to police statements. NYPD Detective George-"  
_  
WHAT?!  
  
If you weren't sitting on a couch you'd have kicked yourself up and backwards, falling flat on your back from the surprise before you leaned forward to see the news report. There was no way; a break in at the Guggenheim? So soon after you'd stopped Frank Castle from killing that one guy? I mean, sure, crime in NYC was always going to be going on, but you'd figure... well, hey, it was just crime in NYC. It wasn't like it-  
  
 _"-the piece stolen was the previous target of October's attempted theft at the Guggenheim by one Walter Hardy, the piece-"_  
  
-WAS THE EXACT SAME ONE!?  
  
At this point you were hammering away at your phone, trying to figure out just what the Hell was going on. No, Walter Hardy hadn't broken out of jail; the news report and others you'd found while searching had said the police interrogated him again just to be sure he hadn't slipped out. So if it wasn't the old guy then who?  
  
...  
  
Great. Looks like your quiet, safe, easy to be responsible week just took a shot in the foot. Kind of ironic all things considered.


	33. Irresponsible

You wiped the sweat from your brow as you finished up the last cut on the stencil. While your first attempt at drawing it into the material hadn't looked fantastic, even if it was close, you thought that your second swing at it had looked about as well as when you'd first designed that old stencil. You wished you could've kept it but, well, it wouldn't have gone over well if Aunt May or Uncle Ben had accidentally stumbled on it and saw what exactly it was, right? As you unfolded the freshly cut material you couldn't help but smile; yep, looks as good as the old one. Now all you had to do was spray paint the White Spider onto the chest of your new sweatshirt and, bam, you'd look like brand new.  
  
You heaved a small sigh as you scratched at your head, feeling somewhat mentally exhausted as you walked over to said sweatshirt and got to work. Cramming was no joke; jamming weeks worth of potential study material into your head in a matter of days was a bit of an ask, even for someone like you. It was rough but, hey, at least you were getting somewhere right? More of this and you might feel burnt out but, hey, you'd be ready for finals next week... right? Or were you already ready? Maybe not ready at all? It was so hard to say; you'd heard from some upperclassmen that they were way too easy while others said that they had taken them for a long, arduous ride.  
  
Still, either way it was probably best to study for it, right? This thought stuck with you even as you began spraying on the new spider on your costume's chest, the shape of the Spider causing you to frown a bit. The Guggenheim theft part 2, electric boogaloo, hadn't been the end of whatever had gone on at the museum, it seemed like. In the ensuing days you'd been cramming, the news had reported on another couple break-ins... though the second guy had said that it seemed like nothing was stolen on his end. Which was good, right? Nothing stolen meant that things were working out alright while you were busy studying...  
  
Though, even as you thought that you couldn't help but wonder; if there was a reported break in but nothing had been reported stolen, then what did happen anyway? What was going on...  
  
Well... it wasn't like you couldn't put off figuring out what for a while longer... right?


	34. To Catch A Thief

"Thanks for stopping by to check some of this over before heading out dude. I figure I stand the best chance in these classes so might as well maximize it before the weekend hits, right?"  
  
"You know Ned, you probably could've also ensured you'd do better in other classes if you spent more time cramming this weekend, right?" You spoke quickly from Ned's bathroom as you moved to get changed into some different street clothes. While you wouldn't change into your Spider-Man outfit here, it'd be nice if you could at least make it out of Queens without people immediately recognizing it was you to potentially tell Aunt May. So putting on some different clothes, brushing your hair a bit and, more importantly, taking off your glasses would hopefully ensure you'd be somewhat incognito until you needed to change into the Spider-Man getup before hitting Manhattan.  
  
"Pfft, dude, everyone knows that cramming the night before the big exam does more harm than good. Nah, the weekend's time for me to relax my brain after cramming hard these past few days, you know?" You smirked a bit as you leaned closer to the door to speak up a little louder.  
  
"Then how about maybe cramming earlier this week like I did, then you could make more progress and do better in other classes."  
  
...  
  
"I'm not gonna front Peter, I just really hate the other classes." You both laughed at that show of honesty from Ned as you went back to changing your shirt. "For real, I'm pretty much putting my money on being able to cost into a B in most of them, let the classes I actually like pull up my GPA. Heck, worse comes to worse and I get a C in one I'm still pretty certain to get at least a 3.0."  
  
"You're a mess." You laughed as you shook your head, practically imagining the shit eating grin on your friend's face.  
  
"Hey don't judge, Pete. Not everyone can be as big brained as you smart guy." You kind of doubted that, given that a little hard work and determination could work wonders for intelligence, but you decided to not bring that up. "Besides, aren't you the one getting ready to play hookie with cramming?" You nodded your head, though you realized the gesture was meaningless while inside Ned's bathroom.  
  
"Yeah, yeah I am. Though... I dunno. Kind of felt more like I was playing hookie these past few days already." You remarked as you slid on a different jacket as you could hear the hum from the other side of the door.  
  
"You really think all these robberies have been by the same person who broke into the Guggenheim last weekend, then?" You snorted a bit at that as you looked yourself over in the mirror.  
  
"Either that or a string of extraordinarily skilled thieves all decided they'd get into a line and take turns breaking and entering these past few days." You shook your head. You hadn't started the weekend off with a lot to go on but... crap, if you'd gone out earlier, maybe you could've found whoever was behind this. You had a place to start looking and so long as you were dedicated you could've tracked the person down eventually. Even if you missed them once or twice, it seemed like whoever was behind these thefts were leaving a lot of crime scenes behind for you to use as examples.  
  
You didn't though. Who knows what had been stolen, or what material had been gathered, in the meantime while you were cramming. Finally, you decided that you couldn't sit and just let this happen. You were going to go out and look for... whoever was doing all this.  
  
"Yeah... and funny thing is, one dude being the person behind it is more believable this time. A whole bunch of randos not tripping alarms and getting away free and clear without anybody even knowing about the b and e until it's way too late? I'll believe one super skilled guy over several too." You nodded at that as you popped open your backpack, putting the clothes you came to Ned's house in over your new costume, freshly washed and painted, before closing your backpack again.  
  
"Yeah, I think that's what's gonna make these next couple days a bit of a pain. I'm literally gonna have to catch this thief in the act. Nobody's gonna be reporting it and unless they suddenly get really bad they're not gonna be giving any sign that they're around. It's either red handed or bust, by the looks of it."  
  
"I'll try my best to keep an eye on where the police are extremely active for you and guide you away, at least. Whoever this is they're probably not gonna try to rob a joint right in the middle of heavy police traffic, even if it is several hundred feet below them... which, hey. At least you won't have to search _all_ of Manhattan." You could help but snort at that as you stepped out of the bathroom, finally.  
  
"Yeah, just have to check the skylines. Which... considering how difficult it can be to swing around that high, sounds like a good time." You say, surprising yourself by actually being somewhat truthful in that. It was kind of exciting, the idea of swinging around the very heights of Manhattan again.  
  
"Meaning you'd best be careful when we're talking over the phone or else... well, you'll be going a long way down Peter." You laugh as you scratch the back of your head.  
  
"No kidding. It's hard enough to swing one-handed while talking on the phone. Even harder to do it when swinging up that high... I'll have to stop my search every time you want to report in or something."  
  
"Hmmm, you know, when it comes to stuff like that, I have been trying to think of a few solutions..." You smile a bit at that as you shrug.  
  
"Well I mean, Ned, the solution's obvious. I'd need a wireless headset or some kind of Bluetooth device in order to do the whole thing free-handed. Otherwise I'm basically texting and driving hundreds of feet up into the air." You see Ned shake his head as he tapped his forehead.  
  
"Actually, I've been trying to think of a few workarounds for problems like these involving some apps. If you've got some time..." Ned offered you a seat next to his computer where his phone and your phone were sitting comfortably. You checked your watch... it wasn't quite dark yet and wouldn't be for a little while... you guessed you had some time to sit down and talk with Ned about some potential stuff he'd been thinking of. "Got a lot of ideas on the back burner that I've been working on too, not just this. So hit me with what Mr. Spider-Man thinks he's gonna be needing going forward." You rolled your eyes at that; Mr. Spider-Man. That just took all the cool right out of that name.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx  
**  
 _"Any luck yet, Webhead?"  
_  
...  
  
"Webhead?"  
  
You stopped on the side of Carnegie Hall by [One 57](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/One57_from_Columbus_Circle%2C_May_2014.png/1200px-One57_from_Columbus_Circle%2C_May_2014.png) as you made to answer Ned's call. You'd been scanning around the better neighborhood in Manhattan looking for any sign of trouble... which was to say, all the neighborhoods in Manhattan except Hell's Kitchen. The guy had been breaking into apartments and condos belonging to the rich and famous across Manhattan and so it seemed like a good idea to keep your search limited to those areas as well as some businesses here and there belonging to those types.  
  
 _"It's what the Bugle's been calling you in its editorials lately. I think it's pretty catchy."  
_  
"Well great, good to know. Not like I didn't come up with the superhero name to be catchy in the first place." You said with a sigh as Ned chuckled.  
  
 _"Hey man it just rolls off the tongue a little easier than 'Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man'. Punchy."_... You did have to admit, Ned did have a point. _"Nothing today yet either, huh?"  
_  
"Yeah, to answer your question, not yet anyway." You remarked as you glanced around. You'd been at this for the past couple evenings trying your best to find any sign of this guy's next crime scene. You'd come up empty every time so far... and not because the guy you were hunting down was being quiet about it either. More robberies had taken place each night you'd failed to tail the dude, or at the least a breaking and entering where clearly something must've happened. You were on the right trail each time... it just so happened that you weren't in the same spot he was in when you were looking for him.  
  
Maybe that's the kind of frustration the police felt in not being able to track you down.  
  
"I'm gonna keep looking but it looks like the search might go into the weekend. I'm just not having luck stumbling into the guy. Any radio chatter about a b and e yet, dude?" You asked as, finally, you glanced up a ways, eyes drifting along the surface of One 57.  
  
 _"None yet, so either he hasn't struck yet or he's in the process of it... or we've reached the point where he's done and we're just waiting for the police to-"  
_  
"Hang on a sec Ned, need to focus." You put your phone off of your ear as you narrowed your eyes, doing your best to look through the goggle lenses of your mask as you sought to narrow on... on a glint. Of something. On one of the higher condominiums by the looks of it.  
  
 _"You have something, Spidey?"  
_  
"I might... I think I spotted something on the Billionaire Building itself. I'll call you back if it's nothing." Ned just gave a grunt of affirmation as you canceled the call, throwing your phone into your backpack and securing said backpack to a level surface on Carnegie Hall before jumping up and zipping on over to One 57 itself. You stuck to the side of the building, looking to position yourself on one of the darker parts of the building to, hopefully, avoid being spotted. You climbed and climbed quick, going as quick as you could as you crawled up the wall toward the shine you spotted. Once you finally did so... you quickly realized what the shine was.  
  
A perfectly circular hole cut into the glass window of one of the condominiums.  
  
It was late, the sun having set hours ago as only the bare lights of the street below illuminated this far up. Still, despite how late on into the evening it was, whoever owned this condominium hadn't come back yet. Bracing yourself you quickly flipped in through the open hole in the glass, finding yourself into a well designed, make-shift study that someone had transformed one of the rooms into. Walls that separated parts of the condo from other parts of it were lined with bookshelves stuffed with folders, files and books of all stripes. A desk was laid out just in front of the window, likely to give light to whoever spent their time working in here. A nice, wooden desk with drawers built in with small brass highlights and handles. A great, powerful looking computer was sat on top of the desk...  
  
Man this was really nice. This thing looked like it was probably thirty times more powerful than your laptop...  
  
Oh and the ambiance of the room was pretty sweet too.  
  
You stepped in as you took a careful look around, keeping your eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. It didn't take long for you to notice what was probably the goal here; the computer had been powered up and a file transfer of some kind had been completed onto a drive, by the looks of it. Dude must've been an expert hacker in order to break into this guy's computer...  
  
...  
  
Either that or he searched through the guy's drawers... and found a sticky note with a password on the front of it.  
  
...  
  
1, 2, 3, 4, **6** , 5.  
  
...  
  
Okay, you weren't saying this dude _deserved_ to be robbed, but...  
  
You sighed as you glanced around. No sign of the guy anywhere in the room... and it was quiet... too quiet. Maybe he'd already gotten out? How though? You'd gotten up here as quickly as you could. He cut his entrance into the glass. He'd have gotten to get out that way right?  
  
...  
  
Maybe he'd been here a while ago longer than you thought... but... no, that didn't make sense, the computer didn't go into sleep mode yet. Surely that meant that it hadn't been too long since it was last futzed with, right?  
  
As you ponder this your eyes finally catch sight of something; the door to the study was cracked open ever so slightly... or perhaps, more accurately, it had never been closed fully.  
  
You narrowed your eyes behind your goggles as you tensed up a bit, considering your next step.

Well... if you were gonna catch this varmint in the act, you were gonna have to act fast! Taking a deep breath you quickly rushed forward and basically charged at the door, pushing it to the side and then slamming it shut behind you before you quickly leaped several feet ahead. The condo itself was pretty dang nice; a wide open space with large, spacious glass windows giving a look at the skyline of New York City, though of course with Carnegie Hall and its tower forming the major sight to behold from this part of the building. A lot of furniture, fancy furniture, was piled all along an open living room thing of sorts that, you swore, seemed almost larger than the first floor of Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house...  
  
You'd like to say you got no pleasure of jumping all over that furniture as you quickly tried to scope out where the thief had gone but... well, you did. Glancing about told you a few key things; the first was that you still had absolutely no idea where the thief was, almost completely hidden from sight as you tried your best to figure out just where this person had slipped off to. The second... was that you really couldn't find a light switch. You looked by all the doors and tried to keep an eye out but, alas, you just couldn't see the usual bump or design of even a fancy light switch. Maybe this place ran on signals or something like that? not that it mattered; a little darkness didn't hurt anyone and, besides, if the thief snuck up on you, you had your Spider-Sense...  
  
Though if the thief snuck away in the dark while you couldn't notice then that really would've been a real pain in the ass, considering all the effort you'd gone through to find even a trace of the thief. So you quickly formulated a plan; from your preliminary glancing you saw six doors immediately around you and, with six shots of your Webbing, two at a time and three rounds from each Web Shooter, you managed to tag each door and then pulled up to a more central location, keeping each of the strands taut as you sought to use them as a sort of warning system; if one went tighter than usual or went limp, then your thief was making his escape.  
  
Trap set, all you needed to do now was bait the hook.  
  
"Show's over there you burglar. I've had your trail for the past few days now and I know you're in here. I've got the place... er, not wired, but webbed, so there's no way you're getting out of here!" You glanced about as you tried to see even the slightest hint of the thief. None so far. "You know, if you're here to replace that one old dude I already put away you might as well hang up your burlap sack now. Dude didn't get put in jail cause he was too old and too tired... he got put in jail because I'm swinging around New York now. I'll... trap you my web... urgh, man I really gotta work on my heroic banter. If it's not a quip I still got a ways to go." You commented idly to yourself before tensing up, raising both fists.  
  
"Point is, if you want to get out of here then the only way you're going to do it is through me! So show yourself so I can Web you up and turn you over already!"  
  
...  
  
Well that didn't seem to work. Dude must not have been keen on the idea of going toe to toe with you. That was fine though; after the Vulture fight that would've almost been expected, given what you showed off you could do. Just meant you'd have to play this smart and go step-by-  
  
 ***zzzzRRRRRRRRing!*  
**  
Hah, you knew this dude would get impatient sooner or later. You quickly ducked around... a metal claw gauntlet with five very razor sharp claws lining its fingers. Okay, unexpected. So were the two follow up strikes that tried to slash your back open from behind you. A quick flip and zip around allowed you to spin in mid-air in order to meet your foe eye to... well, actually, mask-to-mask looking at the guy now. A general purple costume was adorned on a dude that looked slightly bigger than you and probably more muscular, though only barely. [A much darker purple cape was adorned on his back as the white eyes of his mask](https://static3.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/spider-verse-prowler.jpg)... well, just kind of glared back at you. The metal braces of the gauntlet had this energy in them, the machinery at work in some way seemingly, as he stared you down.  
  
You noticed two things almost immediately; the first was that... well, you said he was purple but... it was hard to tell in a way. The way light bent around the guy was... well, kind of like looking at something covered in vantablack... if vantablack didn't just absorb light on the surface of what it was on but also absorbed the light from the space around it. The suit almost seemed to swallow the light around it, leaving the space it occupied darker. No wonder you couldn't spot this guy in the dark, Heck, judging by how much darker he made it even a sufficiently shady alley would probably be able to cover him well.  
  
The second thing you noticed was that his costume's mask... well, it looked a lot like your own design that you'd come up with...  
  
Hey, neat to see it in use beforehand at least. Man it looked just as cool as you thought it would.  
  
Still, priorities.  
  
"So, you're the crook who's been roaming around ruining everybody's pre-Christmas good vibes, huh?" You stroked your masked chin as you looked at the guy who just continued to look at you with that glare... which you were considering was just part of the costume's generic look. "Gotta admit, not exactly like the guy from the Guggenheim either; you're definitely way more hi-tech than-HEY!" You were cut off from your monologue as the thief bolted, making a run for the next section of the condo over as you narrowed your eyes. "Dude, rude, I was talking! You get back here and listen to old Spidey's quips before I get to walloping you. That's just common courtesy!" You fired off two Weblines in order to try and catch the guy though unlike a lot of other crooks you'd been catching the dude was smart enough to make sure that he was facing you most of the time while moving.  
  
This surprising common sense, surprising given the number of people who failed to pick up on it in the criminal world, allowed him to pretty quickly and easily dodge out of the way of both of your Weblines... which hey, another surprise. Usually you managed to at least tag one on a criminal, this guy actually managed to beat out everyone else by avoiding both of them. Alright, so our purple guy here was quick on his feet; probably meant you'd have to actually get up in his face. You quickly leaped forward to follow him, the thief quickly ducking around the corner of the condo in order to break line of sight on you. Well, it's not like it would matter. When you rounded the corner, it's not like he'd be...  
  
Gone. Dude was just friggin' gone! Your eyes bugged out a bit behind your goggles as you blinked, glancing around as you looked for even the slightest sign of the thief. You jogged forward a bit to check down a nearby hallway and... son of a gun you couldn't see him there either.  
  
Huh... okay. So where exactly did this guy-  
  
 ***ZRRRRRRRRRING!*  
**  
AH, DEATH FROM ABOVE!  
  
You quickly jumped forward, just barely avoiding your shoulders being turned into pincushions as the guy dropped down right where you had been standing previously. With a metallic sounding growl he rushed forward and took another few swipes at you, most of them missing, as he just grunted and narrowed his gaze at you, a perplexed looked to them as he seemed to try and take you in fully. How did he pull that off anyway? It's like he came out of nowhere! You looked up for some sign of how he pulled this off and... and...  
  
"Hey! Yo dude, uncool, Wall Crawling's my shtick!" You noticed the puncture marks in the ceiling from his claws, likely having allowed him to hang above you before he dropped down. "You start spinning a web then I'll sue, pal!" You shook your head as you got ready to sock him one good for having stolen one of your very cool gimmicks. "Besides, stuff like that isn't going to work on me. Keep trying though, it'll keep giving me opportunities to tag you." You declared, silently thanking your Spider-Sense as you rushed forward to try and take a swing at the dude after he had backed off you, only for him to try and return the favor. The dude swung wide... only for him to claw at the wall. At first you might've thought he had gone too far, up until he finished his swung and threw a bunch of debris and dust onto your goggles. Thankfully those goggles meant you weren't being blinded... but it still meant that you had a harder time seeing for a moment.  
  
Which, considering your Spider-Sense, didn't really matter. You cleared off your goggles as you easily dodged out of the way, only for you to sigh as you watched him back up yet again, taking a small jump over a grand piano that was positioned in these grand quarters of this rich dude. This was a different sensation for you; being so thoroughly on the off foot in the fight. The guy was able to take initiative with his initial swing of it and what would ordinarily allow you your opportunity to take initiative back, your Webbing, was decidedly unreliable in this case.  
  
So you'd just have to get creative. If he was going to use a grand piano to stand in between the two of you then you were just gonna have to try and use that grand piano to pin him in. You quickly rushed forward, taking a deep breath as you shoved hard against the piano, causing it to scrape loudly across the floor as you pushed it in toward the prowling thief. The dude looked awed for a moment, trying desperately to shove back to no avail, when he gave up that particular ghost and just jumped back over the piano, a look of shock on his face. Still, the dude was ready to go, as evidenced by the moment he turned around, dug his claws into the grand piano's lid and...  
  
Wow okay, managed to pry it off of its hinged in order to start swinging that lid around. Whatever that suit was it seemed to somehow adjust his strength minutely in some way. This was the thought most forward on your mind as you easily dodged out of the way of both swipes of the piano lid as the thief tried to swat you down like a fly, the lid going in two wide arcs that eventually ended with it being smashed down on the floor, reduced to a bunch of shattered wood.  
  
"Now, you see, I wouldn't have gone with that. Seems like such a waste of a nice grand piano." You ignored how pitifully the musical instrument had given a loud 'bwong' when you'd shoved it right into the wall in your effort to pin the thief in. Speaking of pinning you quickly leaped forward again, seeing your opportunity to strike at the guy as fast as you could. If your Webbing couldn't pin him down and he was proving difficult to punch... then you were just gonna stop him from moving about so much. You moved to grab him, to use your not inconsiderable strength to force him to stay in one place where you could actually deal with him. Your grabs were, initially, pretty underwhelming as he either dodged out of the way or-  
  
"OW! DUDE! Do you know how expensive these thermals are?!" You called out as those claws sure did live up to how sharp they seemed. With your swings coming in he'd sometimes reach his hands out to force your own away, taking the opportunity to dig claws into your wrist or your palm as he did so. Blood was evident and there were cuts which really hurt but it was nowhere near as bad as what Vulture did to you so you powered through it. Eventually your hard work paid off; you forced him into your grip, wrapping your arms around his torso and pinning him to you as you laughed. "Gotcha! Not that fast when you've actually got me right up in your face, are you tough guy?" You couldn't help but feel a bit happy about this; this dude had been doing you dirty during this fight, and so to have him pinned in, glancing up to the ceiling as if looking for some divine inspiration for a way out of this was-  
  
 ***Zooo-CRASH!*  
**  
A world of pain. You choked a bit for a moment as the dude bent his knees and just jumped, sending you both soaring up to the ceiling at a not inconsiderable speed. He leaned back, forcing you to take the brunt of the impact as your back slammed into the ceiling. You weren't gonna lie and say that you were nowhere near dropping the guy from the pain... but you managed to hold onto him. Not only that but your quick thinking allowed you to quickly stick your feet to the ceiling, causing you both to dangle down from it where you did your level best to make sure he got kept _far_ away from the ceiling so he couldn't pull that trick off again.  
  
God, your aching back. You'd need a hot bath when you got home this evening.  
  
"Dude... I've really had it up to here with you." You declared as you, from your perspective, lifted the thief up and then slammed him onto the ceiling. Judging by the sound of the impact the dude was relatively alright, his suit having likely absorbed the brunt of the impact. You winced at that as he shifted around in your grip, uselessly flailing as he tried to force him way out. "Come on dude, at least take defeat with a bit of dignity. You'd be surprised what a long way it can-"  
  
Before you can even finish that the dude's fidgeting gave way to his actual intent; noxious clouds of purple gas erupted from the braces of the gauntlets he was wearing, tubes firing open as the gas erupted all around you. Holy smokes, it was somehow even worse and more irritating than the fire back at the Parker Towers... even if it didn't smell half as bad. You shuddered for a moment, feeling your head swing as you desperately shook your head out. Sleeping gas? Well you were staying awake... even if breathing this in did make you feel so tired between the coughing and the gas itself. You quickly slammed the guy into the ceiling again, the dude groaning in loud pain as you could practically feel the impact you'd imparted on him. That had hurt.. which was small comfort to you as more of the gas entered your lungs, causing you to hold your breath so as to try and avoid breathing in again.  
  
What... what was happening? Why wasn't your Spider-Sense going off? Why didn't it alert you to the fact that the gas was coming? That's how it was supposed to work...  
  
Right?  
  
...  
  
It suddenly became very much apparent to you that you had no real idea how your Spider-Sense actually worked. Which... yeah, bad time for that realization. In the meantime, the thief acted. Either in an attempt to escape again or maybe to get you to scream and breath in more of the gas you could feel the guy trying to stab you with his claws again. You deftly avoided the stabs as best you could and then, once more, slammed the dude into the ceiling, softer this time after the last blow had so clearly knocked him for a loop. You slammed the thief again... and he went limp in your arms, the eyes of his mask going dark as it seemed like the dude had passed out from his injuries...  
  
Thank God.  
  
You resisted the urge to sigh in relief until you managed to propel yourself down from the ceiling, taking a breath of fresh, non-gassed air as you looked down at this dude. Holy crap, this had been a dirty fight. Man, Vulture by all means might've been way more dangerous than this guy but this dude had been clever and played dirty. Hell, if not for the fact you knocked him out, you couldn't imagine what kind of dirty tricks he could've pulled off if the fight kept going...  
  
Like...  
  
Feigning being unconscious until his feet touched the ground, whereupon he immediately dug in his boots to prepare for another massive jump.  
  
...  
  
You barely even have a second to realize that you thought that thought as you grabbed onto the guy's leg and stuck on hard, before crying out in shocked surprise as you both were fucking vaulted through the air and out through the window. The glass shattered under the sheer force of his leap, bouncing off of his costume, likely designed for such occasions to be resilient, as you used him as a makeshift human shield. When you looked back up at him you saw those glowing eyes of his glaring down at you, boot raised to try and stomp on your face. You glanced down and saw New York spread out before you... a long, several hundred foot drop beneath you. If he knocked you off then... well, you had your Webs but... still...  
  
You weren't alerted by Spider-Sense, you didn't see him move. You looked back up and noticed the thief looking between you and the New York spread out beneath the both of you as you both continued to sail away from One 57, propelled by this guy's leap.  
  
...  
  
There's a shake of his head before he snaps his cape up and back, causing you to cry out in surprise as it suddenly straightens out, turning into... a glider of sort. Oh wow, like The Dark Knight. Nifty. You both catch some air as, immediately, your fall is stunted, you and the thief catching some air as you glided your way further out.  
  
Well... okay this was more manageable than a free fall at least. You could start to plot out how you were gonna take this guy-  
  
 ***SNAP*  
**  
You both immediately looked up at the sound from the cape as a loud and forceful gust of wind rode up into it. The back of the cape folded under the pressure as you both were sent back free falling, causing you to scream as the thief snapped his cape back into the glider position again. You stopped for but a moment but, even faster this time, the cape snapped again. The problem was clear to you within seconds.  
  
 _"Fuck! This cape wasn't designed for two people!"_ Your eyes widen at the distorted voice of the thief as he cursed under his breath, trying to snap the cape into a glide again before it folded at the edges again.  
  
"Holy crap, you can actually talk!"  
  
 _"Yeah no shit I can talk! Now please shut up and stop quipping for a moment while I try to make sure we don't both die!"_ You looked at the situation around you as he tried to snap his cape again, succeeding for a moment before it failed again. At this point the winds were too strong and you both were falling too fast for it to abruptly stop either of you. You both were around fifty feet from either One 57 or the Carnegie Tower and you both were dropping quickly... though between both of your surface areas and the thief's cape, you weren't falling nearly as fast as you could've been. That'd buy you precious time... though how much was debatable...  
  
You needed a plan if you both weren't going to end up a splattered mess on the pavement and you both needed one quick.

"Okay, okay, okay! Just stop thrashing and listen to me for a second! If we work together I think we both might be able to come out of this without becoming stains on the concrete! Truce?" You looked at the guy's face for a moment, his mask's eyes widening a bit as he looked back at you, still desperately trying to get his cape to work.  
  
 _"Truce? Please, you think I was born stupid? You're a superhero, the second we're safe-"  
_  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a superhero so the second we're safe I'll try to catch you again but, come on dude! I didn't let Vulture die; would you really rather be dead than in prison right now?" Both of you chanced a glance down at the ground which was still rapidly approaching. He didn't have long to think about it and, thankfully, it seemed that split second decisions were working in your favor at the moment.  
  
 _"Yeah, fine, so what's the plan?"_ You breathed a sigh of relief as you pointed over to Carnegie Tower, which was about the nearest structure with a few roofs that either of you could aim for.  
  
"We're gonna make a crash landing on one of those roofs. When I hit a Webline, you use your cape to try to slow us down as much as possible!" The thief nodded as you both narrowed in on the target, another catch open of his cape causing you guys to momentarily slow down and glide a bit before it collapsed under your combined weight again. It did, however, have the desired effect of starting you guys on towards Carnegie Tower. "Alright now I'm gonna actually need my stuff free for this one so you do your best to latch on and keep that cape free." The thief nodded again, this time circling about both of you as he spun about. When you let loose your grip on him he replaced his grip, gripping one hand decidedly on you, claws digging in slightly, as his other tried to keep his cape readied. You, on the other hand, just took the new freedom from having to hold onto him to take careful aim with both Web Shooters.  
  
At this speed with this much weight it was a cinch that one Webline would snap... Hell, it was probably even likely that two would. However, between two Weblines and this guy's cloak...  
  
You took a long breath before firing, sending off two lines of Webbing toward the Carnegie Tower. You bit your lip underneath you mask, watching as time seemed to crawl to a slow. You waited anxiously for an impact, a sign that you'd stuck. A sign that this hadn't fallen through at the first hurdle.  
  
You felt the small reverberations through the Webbing and, taking a strong hold of each line, looked down at the thief. "NOW!" You loudly declared with all your might as, immediately, the thief snapped open his cape in order to try and catch a wind. Once again he hung in the air for a moment, the cape catching just as the impact hit. For a moment you both were slowed just at the moment where both your weight hit the Webbing. Immediately you both started swinging toward Carnegie Tower, shouts escaping both your throats as you both soared through the air. You heard the Webbing strain, felt it pull in your grip and saw, with your own eyes, as strand after strand after strand of the Webbing broken apart.  
  
Down. To. The. Last. Thread.  
  
Still, despite how precarious the situation was, despite how desperate... it happened. You started to swing up at a certain point rather than down. Swinging on in towards Carnegie Hall you aimed for one of the rooftops farther off from the top to give the both of you ample time slow down in the swing. As you did so, however, you couldn't help but take notice of the precarious situation you'd placed both yourself and the thief into. As you both swing in, knowing that you'd need to put more work into trying to catch him, you did your best to subtly stick a Webline to his back while he wasn't paying attention. Despite the noise, which the wind seemed to cover, all seemed well as you stuck a Webline to the thief's back, which you would do your damndest to keep a hold of.  
  
Soon enough you had to let go of the Webbing and, as you both approached the rooftop, each other. After all, if you both kept a hold of each other that would make for a pretty rough touchdown, even at the much slower speeds you were both going. You kept your grip on the Webline attached to him, of course, but otherwise you both fell apart from each other. You touched down with a solid roll, dispersing the energy and kicking plenty of gravel around as you settled. It seemed as though the thief's landing was even more solid than your own. You were almost impressed...  
  
Up until he immediately tried to jump away again.  
  
"Oh no you don't!" You declared as you immediately gave a hard pull on the Webline you had attached to the burglar's back, immediately jerking him backwards from his own jump as you did so. A sound of shock and surprise echoed out as the dude went from jumping really quickly to a dead stop which, with your pull, soon turned into a fall right back onto the ground. You watch him groan for a moment as he slowly forced himself back up, finally noticing the Webline as he shook his head to work out the sudden shock to his system...  
  
Well, you didn't have much time to finish this; dude had the tools to cut up your Webbing real quick. If you were gonna catch him, it was now or never.  
  
"Alright, I've learned my lesson about giving you space, so let's get back to where we were and get you back in here!" You pulled again, hard, as you reeled the burglar back into range, the man in the hi-tech suit stumbling as you did so. Face to face, meeting your eyes with his you both go about the dance again; you're not necessarily looking to tag him with your hands this time. You know he's slippery and quick so it'd be hard to nail him early. Instead you're goading him on, getting him to make his steps before going in for the kill. You end up with another few sharp claws across your forearms, which still really hurt, but you stomach through it as, again, he dodges your attempt to grab him.  
  
Whereupon you surprise him by producing your Web Shooters again.  
  
"Hands up!" You declare, firing two strands at both of his gauntlets in an attempt to snare them. One strand lands, the other misses but, with another reach forward you manage to take advantage of the awkward position his movements had left him in so that you might be able to grab onto his wrist, finally. In one hand you held the Weblines that connected to his back and his other hand. In the other hand, well, his wrist. You had him once again... and he couldn't cut himself free, not without the use of his hands. He also couldn't shoot more of that gas in your face if he couldn't move his hands up to meet your head...  
  
Which meant he only had one out in this situation but, well, it was one you were more than ready for this time. As the criminal once again tried to jump like before you stuck the bottom of your feet onto the roof with your Wall Crawling abilities, effectively anchoring yourself as you held on for dear life. You could practically hear his shoulders jostle uncomfortably, your pulling and his jumping putting considerable strain on them as he winced underneath his own mask. You forced him back down onto his feet and immediately went in with your grip, firing off Weblines even as, with powerful yanks, you did what you could in order to force his gauntlets off of his hands.  
  
It was hard, they were secured on there good and tight, but a few loose screws and a tear later and both were off, revealing dark skin just under the surface. You didn't take time to really take that in, however, as you continued forcing him down, Webbing him up as best you could as you sought to pin him in place...  
  
Soon enough you did it; his feet were dangling, unable to get a solid surface contact he could use and the rest of him was stranded up, the Weblines holding him secure as you made sure, with your own strength, that he was down for long enough to really lay it onto him. That suit enhanced him in some way, it seemed, so it only made sense to use your own considerable strength to make sure you had plenty of Webbing on him before letting go...  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Woo... Jeez... think I finally did it... Good Lord, you were a hassle to pin down." You said with a heave, resisting the urge to drag a slightly bloody forearm across your forehead to dab at your sweat as you took deep, long breaths. You took a moment to look over your handiwork, see the frustration, agitation and worry clear even through the guy's mask, as you let the freezing night air just cool you down for a moment...  
  
As best it could through your still mostly intact thermals, of course... you'd have to sew those up later.  
  
Still, at least the cuts were clean, that was something you could give him.  
  
Now then... how to get this guy into police custody...

"Well..." You heave a slight sigh as you shake your head. "I don't know about you, but I feel like we really bonded tonight. You know, really established a connection." You internally grin as the guy groans, shaking his head as you quickly disarmed him of his most obvious gear.  
  
You quickly did your best to remove various bits and pieces of what were the more obvious parts of his costume's gimmick. Everything was interlocked or interconnected in some way but, unlike with the gloves, you had a bit more time to actually remove them rather than tear or break them off. The boots had to go, obviously, and so did the cape. From there you continued to search him over; he'd obviously stolen something or other from the guy's office, otherwise why would he have been in there right? He must've had something on his person...  
  
Still, as you looked all around the costume you ended up finding nothing on him; maybe he sent whatever he'd 'stolen' in an email to whoever was meant to receive it? If that was the case then it'd leave a pretty easy paper trail for the police to follow, which would be good. It'd been a good way for them to pursue the angle on this. Finally, after everything was said and done, the grand finale and the last bit of gear on this guy; his mask obviously gave him some kind of night vision or something judging by how those eyes were lit, so that had to go too. It was just a bonus that it meant also unmasking your second criminal.  
  
"Sure, the stakes weren't as high as Vulture but it was an interesting fight, really had me going. I'd say you're at least a C-List Supervillain, dare I say.....B-List?" You give a good-natured pat on his shoulder before grabbing the guy's mask, an annoyed groan escaping his lips as his brow furrowed beneath it. "I mean... let's see... thief, a Supervillain, with a nifty color scheme..." You started as you pulled the mask off of his head, ready to start joshing him about him being your Cat Woman, of all things. As the mask came off and a few dreads fell out from the top of his head, however, you paused. In the dead of night with only the lights of the city to give you guidance, it took your eyes a moment to take in the face of the man in front of you...  
  
Or... should you say the young man...  
  
...  
  
'Oh no way...' You thought to yourself, eyes wide as you finally recognized the dude in front of you. There was no way, just no way. Hobie Brown? One of Flash's friends and the football player? The guy you'd only run into a handful of times in your entire life? You just... what? You were honestly flummoxed as you took in the sight, your sticky fingers being the only thing keeping his mask in your hands as you took the sight in. For a moment you thought that your eyes had to be deceiving you, that it had to be someone else other than Hobie. That it just _had_ to be...  
  
"Yeah, yeah. You aren't exactly that old yourself there, Hero..." Hobie grumbled the young man looking down to the side with a slightly despondent look. You might've only heard that voice [once](https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/60680680/)* earlier today but... no mistaking it. It'd been as much of a shock then to hear Hobie Brown talk as it was now. You just... how? How did he get this suit? How did he get into this position! You didn't know him that well but you knew that he wasn't anywhere near well off to afford something like this, not by a long shot. Why would he even be in this position stealing in the first place? Immediately your mind raced with the possibilities; someone had to put Hobie up to this. There was no other way; the suit was too good and advanced for Hobie to have gotten this start on his own... but... who, how and why?  
  
You realize that you've been standing around slack-jawed for a moment before you shake your head to get rid of your shock. Those questions don't matter right now. Even if they did it's not like you could answer them. Hobie didn't look like he was inclined to talk and it wasn't like you were with the police. This would be up to them to figure out. For now... you just needed to get him into position for the police to pick him up along with his gear.  
  
"Uh... Yeah, my age on top of that. Yeah, you could be a good... uh, side-villain, I guess." The revelation that this was one of your classmates threw you off your quip game a bit, rotating the Webbing cartridges in your Web Shooters in order to get to the full cartridge. You quickly did your best to make a little Webbing sack for the stuff you'd forced off of him, using his cape as a sack and then your Webbing as a way to not only tie the cape up tightly together but also to keep it stuck tied up. You quickly wrapped him up in even more Webbing to keep him from struggling out as you lifted him and the sack over a shoulder and immediately started swinging back over to One57 to climb right back up to the apartment. You deftly avoided the shattered glass as you flipped on in, quickly finding a good spot in the middle of the living room and away from the door to set Hobie and his gear up. You immediately web Hobie back down onto the ground, the layers of Webbing building up to leave him quite immobile from all the treatments.  
  
"By the way, just gotta ask-" You start, firing a Webline off at the ceiling to hang his gear by as you glanced over his way. "That robbery at the Guggenheim, was that a reputation thing or does one rich guy just really want that painting?" You might not get the important stuff out of him because, naive as you were, you realized that if someone was rich enough to give Hobie this stuff then they were probably not exactly people to cross. However, you figured an innocent question like this, one to just satisfy your curiosity, might be good enough, at least for now. Hobie's dark eyes furrowed as you asked that.  
  
"The Guggenheim?" He asked, seemingly perplexed, as you just looked over at him again upon finishing hanging his gear.  
  
"Yeah, the art museum. The one that last thief I caught tried to rob. You know." You figured he was playing coy but, well, seeing the confusion on his face gave you a slight pit in your stomach.  
  
"I never robbed that place. I mean... yeah, I know, timing and you don't necessarily have to believe me, but I didn't." You blinked at that, leaning down a bit to get a closer look at him, both to read his face and maybe push him a bit to answering differently if he was lying. "I swear man, I had nothing to do with it." He wasn't desperate or insistent, more just making a statement of fact with that despondent look on his face. As you read that expression... you couldn't help but feel a little gobsmacked.  
  
Hobie had to be kidding. _He didn't rob the Guggenheim?_ But... this whole fight. This whole string of robberies. Like how expert he was, the kind of stuff he was stealing... well... it wasn't as big as the painting, or as public... and well, people were actually talking about the robbery a the Guggenheim rather than clamming up about what had been stolen from them.  
  
...  
  
There was no way it could just be a coincidence though. No way that, coincidentally, someone just got hired to rob the Guggenheim, the exact same painting, the day before or even the day of Hobie going through his own string of robberies that you'd pursued right to him and to this place...  
  
Right?  
  
...  
  
Or... maybe that's exactly what it was? It wasn't like there was only one criminal in New York, right? You scratched the back of your neck awkwardly; well... even if it wasn't Hobie who'd robbed the Guggenheim, it'd gotten you on Hobie's trail. Let you stop him before he kept making this huge mistake with his life and before he hurt more people. That was a good thing, right? Even if it meant you effectively had no trail for the Guggenheim robbery at this point now. Who knows; maybe you'd get another trail of robberies after this and you could track down this other person...  
  
But, for now, you were just satisfied with stopping Hobie. That's all you could be right now, considering how beaten up and exhausted you were. Plus you needed to get bandaged up before heading home... which meant...  
  
"Anyway, have fun in jail. Stop doing crime dude, prison orange doesn't look like it'll be a good look on you." You said, leaving Hobie to groan as you quickly ran for the open window and got out of there. You'd need to head back to Ned's in order to get yourself patched up and changed back into the clothes you left home in earlier today anyway. So you started swinging for your gear in order to place a call with Ned. Besides, he was probably done setting up what he wanted to talk about.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"Hobie Brown? Are you for real man?"  
  
"Yeah, sadly..."  
  
You'd worked your way back over to Ned's house after a long swing back. After placing the call and giving him the scant details of what you needed him to do, calling the police, getting some bandages ready and making sure his folks wouldn't notice if you came in through a window, you bee-lined it for Ned's house, doing your best to not let the light bleeding from your hand and forearm cuts seep into the outfit you'd worn out into the city. Upon getting back you'd surprised Ned a bit with the sudden entrance but your best friend, thankfully, didn't take long to recover. As it stood you were currently wrapping your forearms up in bandages to staunch the bleeding, applying a small patch bandage to your palms in order to ensure they wouldn't bleed too much either before you got home.  
  
All the while Ned just shook his head in almost complete disbelief. "Dude... I mean... what? How even? Hobie and his family aren't well off from what I've heard. You wouldn't think something like this would come from them... which probably means it didn't... but then who'd give Hobie something like this? He's our age man..."  
  
"Well... I dunno. I really don't know. It's possible he stole it himself or, like me with my Spider Powers, got the suit accidentally somehow... though I doubt it. I could see someone losing track of one spider, but a whole suit that jacked up with tech? Nah, it had to be given to him... cause I doubt he could steal it himself either."  
  
"Maybe whoever got it stole it from him... or... well, do you really think some big tech company would hand out their stuff like this?" You shrugged at that as your overweight friend spun around in his seat.  
  
"I'd say no... up until Toomes. Now that Vulture's a thing I can't really say one way or the other." Ned nodded at that, wincing as he watched you bandage yourself over a particular bad spot that Hobie had cut you.  
  
"Feeling alright there, Pete?" You grin a bit as you shrug, looking back over at him.  
  
"Eh, the bleeding isn't as bad as it was before. Healing factor's already clotting me up real good. Might be a little woozy from the gas... or the blood... but I don't feel too bad. Doesn't hurt nearly as much as what Vulture did, that's for sure. A whole bunch of little cuts by comparison." Ned nodded at that, understanding, as you shook your head. "But enough about all that... you got your little demonstration ready for me of these proxy servers you've had in mind." You see Ned nod, immediately turning in his seat to face his computer as he popped open a few tabs.  
  
"Okay so... what do you know about Proxy Servers outside of the memes?"

  
"Kind of comes with the name; they're servers that you can access to act as go-betweens between you and the internet or other people in a server so you can hide your identity from the other person, right?" Ned nodded at that, grinning as he cracked his fingers a bit.  
  
"Yep, pretty much right on the money there Pete. So that's the basic stuff so I don't really have to go over there, so I can just jump to the more important stuff; open proxies and reverse proxies. [Open proxies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Open_proxy_h2g2bob.svg) are pretty much what they say on the can; it's a forwarding proxy available to just about anyone on the internet. If it's an anonymous proxy then it shows its a server but doesn't reveal the IP Address of the people using it. If it's a transparent proxy, then it'll show the first IP Address operating it... which is what a lot of Websites do, unsurprisingly." You nod at that as Ned switches from a graphic explaining this to another one, showing what looked more like a closed loop.  
  
"[Reverse proxies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Reverse_proxy_h2g2bob.svg) are the trickier ones; they're proxies owned and operated by a single source that usually act as an entrance-exit point for a single other server or point accessing the internet. Basically if the internet, or anyone on it, tries to access the server/point in question they'll be confronted with the proxy first, which'll disguise the IP Address of the server in question. This is where the Encryption and SSL acceleration happens in this case which means that, rather than the server/point itself being attacked in any case, it's the proxy... which is a dummy in the first place meant to act as that layer of security that can't give anything away."  
  
"Okay so that sounds like exactly what we'd want." You say with a grin and a nod. "So what do you need to talk to me about? This sounds fairly straightforward." You see Ned wince a bit as he scratches the back of his head.  
  
"Well... money, first off." Ned says as he waves his hand at the image of the reverse proxy example. "Unsurprisingly it takes some money to set up your own reverse proxy servers to suit your own needs. It's a whole server, after all, which means paying for it to be maintained and running. It'd cost us a few hundred dollars to get the software and hardware necessary and if we wanted, you know, seven then it'd be a handful. Like I said, it's just a few hundred for the first one and, from there, it's just buying the hardware again and again." You nodded at that, slowly, as your enthusiasm lowered a bit.  
  
"We _could_ use free proxy servers which, well, there's literally hundreds of thousands of them on the internet these days. It's just, well." Ned pulled up another [little graphic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/CPT-Proxy.svg) he had prepared. "You see, this is how a proxy server can work in certain cases; it's not only good for keeping your own security but it lets you bypass other securities and firewalls in a lot of places, like at school. Which is good, and I sometimes use free proxies if I just want to check on a few things that I don't mind passing the information through a proxy for..."  
  
"I feel like that's leading into the fact that you might not want to pass secure stuff through a free proxy..." You mumbled as Ned nodded.  
  
"Right on the money. You see, just because people outside of the proxy might not be able to see you, the people running the proxy, if they're malicious, can. People can get scammed by free proxies that way... especially if they've already been cracked by outside sources so they can just dip in and grab up whatever information. If we pass Spider-Man stuff through a free proxy that's been cracked or isn't on the up and up then people would be able to see it and our IP Address. Also, needless to say, it doesn't matter if we pass it through a proxy or not; if we say we're Spider-Man openly then Websites are still gonna treat us like we're, you know, wanted vigilantes. So it'd be good mostly for communications and what we've been doing to organize your searches through the city."  
  
"So like you could listen in on the police broadcasts online through a proxy server and no one would be able to tell it was you, right?" You said, Ned nodding at that.  
  
"Yeah, totally, that's the big benefit on top of some other stuff. It's just like I said; if I use free proxies then the person running it or people who cracked it might be able to tell. So it's just kind of up to how much risk you wanna take here Pete; I can start searching around for reputable free proxies and put them to use right away disguising our web paper trail or I can wait till we put some money together to buy some of our own reverse proxies. That's mainly what I wanted to put through you first, man. I'm open to either, I'm pretty confident in my ability to find good free proxies, but this is your butt on the line so... you know, should have your input."  
  
You nodded at that, appreciating Ned's reasoning, as you thought about it.

"Oh boy, another thing to budget for." You said, somewhat sarcastically, as you rolled your eyes. While it was frustrating to have yet another thing to keep in mind to send some of your dough on, it wasn't all bad by your own estimation; it was valuable and it was pretty important if you were going to keep doing this Superhero thing, especially with Ned as the Guy in The Chair.  
  
"Yeah; if it helps I can pretty much keep on top of maintaining it and keeping it up and running when we get it, I think, so I'll be able to cover the cost in keeping it going." You nodded; you really did have to count your lucky stars that you brought Ned in on this. As expensive as getting the equipment together might be, you also would've had to run, operate and maintain it on your own if you didn't bring Ned on board. Having your best friend on hand really was a weight off your shoulders, all things considered. Which meant, yeah, having a little faith that Ned could handle all of this on his own.  
  
"Anyway, we really haven't done much of anything online yet, right? Listening to Police radio is the most suspicious thing we've done and that isn't really evidence of anything. So I guess if there was anytime to have free Proxies, it'd be now just cover our bases. If there's one thing you've proven so far is that I can trust you as my Guy in The Chair, so I have faith in ya man. Set one up." Ned nodded at that, a wide grin on his face as he watched you finish with the last of your bandages.  
  
"Will do; I'll go ahead and find a solid one for us to start using for our stuff. It'll be nice to have that initial layer of security before we start dipping into the bigger stuff. After all, who knows when we'll be able to get everything together on our own." You nodded in quick agreement with that, checking your own phone to see the time.  
  
"Getting late and I'm pretty much done bandaging myself up and getting changed so I should probably get going in that case." You see Ned nod, your friend already hard at work searching up free proxies as you rolled your eyes. "Be sure to actually get some studying done tonight Ned. Don't just look up free proxies all night instead." You said, jokingly, as Ned waved you off.  
  
"Eh I'll study on the weekend after I get done with all of this." Already knowing that, sure, he might cram... for a bit, you go ahead and laugh as you wave at the back of your best friend's head.  
  
"Take easy man."  
  
"Take it easy, Pete." As much as seeing someone you knew inside the thief's costume had shaken you earlier tonight, you could at least take some small comfort in the fact that, while Hobie being there had been a big shock, that you didn't have to process that or even keep it to yourself. That you actually had a friend that you could lean on in order to help get through this superhero stuff and all the intricacies of it...  
  
You just hoped Hobie and his family would do alright, considering everything that was about to come down on them.


	35. Gossip

_"You know, I think I'd be less annoyed with all of this if it wasn't for the fact that so much of the rest of the work we had to do during the semester wasn't busy work by comparison."_  
  
You nodded your head at that, casually flipping a page in the workbook you were studying off of as Gwen's voice rang through the line you two were sharing. It turns out consistently studying and being away from the rest of her friends and her music was having a bit of an effect on Gwen's normal cool; the blonde drummer's voice clearly agitated as, you had to imagine, she'd been going through the past several days cramming away with no end in sight except for the inevitable final exams that were coming up in the next few days. So Gwen decided to call up someone she figured was having an easy enough time with the cramming to actually help her commiserate over her fate, considering her friends were likely in a life-or-death struggle with their own cramming. Which was fine, in your opinion; you had been getting a bit wound up yourself with Ned having taken the deep dive into studying for Finals.  
  
For someone like you it wasn't as much of an issue; you were used to doing a lot of reading and personal studying in your own time for your scientific interests. However, you wouldn't lie and say that your personal studying techniques translated over well when it came to subjects like literature, grammar or the like. A lot of that was a hassle to go through even if you did see the point to one extent or the other.  
  
"Well I wouldn't call it all busywork, the book readings for Lit feel like they'll play a role in the Finals Exams and everything was put in there to prep us for specific parts." You countered, flipping another page as you heard Gwen blow out her lips on the other end of the line, wincing at the slight auditory chaos it caused through the phone.  
  
 _"I mean yeah, don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't see where all that homework was going. The stuff in it was fine enough but I feel like they could've, you know, actually sat down and taught us in class about all this stuff rather than shoveling off notebooks and mountains of homework on us. Especially if the Exams were then going to require even more rigorous lessons in-class anyway even after we did all that homework. I dunno, it's hard to feel like the classwork itself was important in the grand scheme of things, or a good use of everyone's time, if they have to shovel even more review lessons on top of it all."_ You can't help but grin slightly at that, flipping another page in your book.  
  
"Sounds to me like you might just be upset because all this homework and extra cramming it taking up time you could've spent practicing with your band and hanging out."  
  
 _"... Well yeah, obviously."_ You chuckle at that as you could imagine the casual shrug that accompanied that statement, Gwen rolling around on her side of the phone as you heard her jostle a book around. _"Don't laugh. You can't tell me that you don't have things you'd much rather have been doing aside from homework, Peter."_ You heard Gwen give a chuckle. _"Unless the stereotypes from the cartoons and movies were right and smart people really **love** doing homework, of course. Is this a dream come true for you, Peter?" _You couldn't help but roll your eyes at that as you looked back over at your glasses, false glass in the frames, before giving your answer.  
  
"Hey, that's a hurtful stereotype that nerd-kind has had to deal with forever. I won't stand for it." You start off, getting a quick 'uh huh' from Gwen before continuing. "Besides, yeah, I have plenty of stuff I'd rather be doing aside from homework or this extra cramming." The first thing that came to your mind was, obviously, being Spider-Man but, with how sore you were today even if you really wanted to go out and do your Superhero biz by ignoring cramming and everything else, you wouldn't really be in the most fit shape to do so. However, even aside from Spider-Man, you could do stuff in the lab, watch anime or whatever other shows he had access to with Ned, talk with Aunt May, go for a walk, make some money for your hobbies and work, or anything else really.  
  
It wasn't that you necessarily lacked things you wanted to do aside from homework... and granted now that you had more things on your plate you wanted to do school was getting to be just a bit more of a hassle, but still, you didn't discount all the work done in the semester as meaningless...  
  
Even if, to a degree, Gwen was totally right and some of these assignments were totally just busywork. Though, then again, maybe it just felt that way to you because you were pretty sharp. For kids who weren't as smart or scholastically inclined as you, was busywork still helpful and necessary in order to help them learn...  
  
Well... the answer was probably yes, if you were being honest. Just because something didn't help you learn and was more of a hassle didn't mean that the repetition and practice didn't help someone else out...  
  
Still sucked though.  
  
 _"Oh ho, is that so?"_ You heard Gwen chuckle over the phone as you heard her shuffle around again, likely trying to find some place comfortable wherever she was sitting or laying down. _"Now you've got me curious. What exactly does Peter Parker get up to in his spare time exactly? You've asked after a lot of my interests there, Peter, so it's time for you to be put in the spotlight for once and share your interests with someone you've just recently met."_  
  
...  
  
"Has it been that uncomfortable?"  
  
 _"I'm mostly playing it up for laughs."_  
  
"Mostly?"  
  
 _"Mostly."  
_  
Well that's probably fair.

"Alright, well... let's see here." You tapped your chin thoughtfully as you tried to pull together as good an answer as you could. After all, your mind had almost immediately jumped to 'I'm Spider-Man' as an answer and... well, while that might've been true and probably would've thrown her for a loop, you had no trouble guessing that things wouldn't exactly be... well, cool. To say the very least. Like even if she wasn't a detective's daughter you're fairly certain you would've been _done_ if you said something like that. Still, that did take up a great deal of the answer these days, when you got right down to it. So you had to put together something different that would still be believable and wouldn't expose you.  
  
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I've mentioned before I tinker, right?" You hear a slight hum on the other end of the line.  
  
 _"Yeah, I think that's right. Though after all this studying I can't say 100% for sure. So you get up to some mad scientist stuff?"_... You know she was kidding but she wasn't exactly _wrong_ either. Good Lord, had your life taken a decided turn for the weird ever since the Spider Bite.  
  
"No, no. Course not. Nothing groundbreaking or delving into the realm of mad science." You say with a chuckle as you tried to communicate a nonchalant tone. "You know, just some odds and ends. A bit of this, a bit of that, some experimentation on a few little home improvement ideas or random odds and ends, a bit of work on a computer running models. You know..." You paused. Actually, giving it some thought-  
  
 _"No, I don't actually."_ Yeah you should've figured. _"Still, sounds nifty at any rate."_  
  
"I suppose nifty is a good word for it. Also, I like to dabble in bit of chemistry too. It's all part of going through these old school notes of my dad's. He ended up becoming a professional eventually but from what I can tell these are pretty much mostly his college lecture notes. It's probably for that reason why I tend to have a bit of an easier time learning from his work than at school."  
  
 _"Sounds nice."_ There was a bit of a heavy silence following that; given the fact that you didn't talk much about your parents and lived with your Aunt and your Uncle, most people caught onto the sensitive subject of your parents, to one degree or another, pretty quickly. You did appreciate that she didn't exactly push you for more on that.  
  
"It is, I actually like it a lot." You said as you scratched the back of your head. "I have been trying to pick up some other interests though. I've taken up a bit of drawing-" To draw your Spider-Man logo, naturally, "-I've been doing some sewing that I've been learning from my Aunt May-" To make your Spider-Man costume, of course, "-and I've just been kinda looking up new stuff on the internet from time to time." Almost all of which was centering around Spider-Man in some shape or form...  
  
You know it kind of just now occurred to you that Spider-Man was playing a surprisingly large role in broadening your horizons. It shouldn't be surprising as Spider-Man literally allowed you to do things you never could've done before, but thinking about it directly gave you a moment of pause.  
  
 _"Sounds like you're trying to develop yourself into a real Renaissance Man."_ You laughed at that, chuckling along with Gwen who seemed rather amused herself.  
  
"Well I wouldn't say that but... well, hey, if other people want to." You said glibly as you could imagine Gwen shaking her head on the other end of the line. "Of course that's just when I'm on my own. Whenever I'm hanging out with Ned we binge a lot of shows and stuff over at his place, build Lego sets and... and... and..." You speech slowly crawled to a complete and total halt as you realized what you'd just said, a slight silence coming from the other end of the line as well. "I... didn't just say I still built Lego sets over the phone did I? Cause I get the feeling that'd really cut into my non-existent cool points..." You said, somewhat jokingly, as Gwen hummed.  
  
 _"You shouldn't worry about it too much. After all, if that didn't cut into your cool points, admitting to sewing and playing around with a chemistry set probably would."_ You winced at that; ah yeah, you did both of those things too, didn't you.  
  
"Well I guess I did say those cool points were non-existent, right?" You said with a slight laugh as Gwen just chuckled on her own end of the line.  
  
 _"Hey, it's fine. Not all of us can have cool hobbies that people really dig like being a musician."_ You couldn't help but bark out a laugh at that.  
  
"Hey now, if this was an after-school special that was supposed to be the part where you said I was cool in my own way."  
  
...  
  
Wait, no-  
  
 _"Gonna have to take off another cool point for bringing up after-school specials there Pete. Sorry, I don't make the rules."_ You heard Gwen say through choked laughter as you just rolled your eyes at the entire exchange.  
  
...  
  
"For real though, none of that was especially cool though, was it?"  
  
 _"I mean, being completely totally honest? No, not really."_ Yeah; there was a reason you and Ned often made nerd jokes about yourselves from time to time. _"Don't get me wrong though, that's not a bad thing in my opinion, contrary to what a lot of people would think. Yeah, there's stuff that's cool to do and that isn't, but if it's interesting then to you and other people then it should be whatever, right? Doesn't mean it's cool but... well, the[blind pursuit of cool](https://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/718392/85627546.png) usually tends to bring out the worst in otherwise interesting people, I think."_ The tone Gwen used sounded pretty serious; like this was some kind of deep thought that she'd been cultivating for a while now.  
  
"Sounds like you're talking from a bit of personal experience." Gwen huffed on her end of the line, the sound of her jostling around evident.  
  
 _"Well you wouldn't be wrong, though it isn't necessarily my personal experience though."_ Oh, sounded interesting. _"Though, and I hope you don't mind me stepping on this topic so soon, but it's not exactly something I'd like to actually get into. As much as my friends might dig it gossiping and talking about people without them being around... well, it isn't really my thing."  
_  
Well... you couldn't help but be at least a little curious.

"It's cool. I've never gossiped before so I don't even really know what I'm missing out on anyway." Half true, you thought. While you and Gwen had only ever lightly discussed Flash before, it really didn't rise to the level of what you considered 'gossip'. Gossip was throwing around rumors and stuff and speculating about junk when it came to a person that could be pretty hurtful. What you and Gwen, and what you and Ned did now that you thought about it, was more... discussions. Discussions that never really rose beyond the level of harmless and simple shenanigans. They were [cheeky and fun while gossip usually turned out to be cruel and tragic.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok85BmPyl_I)  
  
 _"Well you can take it from me that you're not missing out on much."_ You chuckle at that as you both ease off that particular avenue of discussion, allowing you to transition to the earlier topic at hand.  
  
"Still, that does leave me a little curious as to what 'cool' hobbies are, exactly." You admitted as you shifted around a bit in your seat. "Is it just something that's popular or does it have to be cool and interesting to watch... would chemistry be a cool hobby is I was actually doing some mad scientist stuff?" You supposed you had an idea about the answer to all of this. Music was fun and universal to share so it was easy to recognize it as being inherently cool. Chemistry... well, it could be very hard to make chemistry 'cool'. About the only way to do that was to make some fireworks and have them go off... and outside of, you know, a setting appropriate for fireworks that usually turned out to be more dangerous than fun.  
  
'Hey I'm gonna make an explosive' is fun when everybody's setting off fireworks, not when you're inside a school building.  
  
 _"I never really thought about it but, gun to my head, I'd probably say it's a little bit of both. Plus, you know, science stuff at this stage of the game is more about homework and stuff so... you know, not exactly great for getting people interested in it."_ Yeah you could get that. Besides, 'cool' scientists were mostly more about attitude than what they did as their job. Tony Stark was widely considered super cool and awesome because of his playboy lifestyle and his wit, rather than for his specific feats of engineering. It was the reason why more people knew about folks like him than they knew about folks like Bruce Banner or Reed Richards. _"As to your other question... I mean, I guess it depends. If it's, like, harmless mad science then maybe?"  
_  
You both laughed at that as you jostled the phone around a bit.  
  
"Yeah, it's all fun and games until the made scientists threatens to blow up the entire world, right?"  
  
 _"Exactly."_ You could agree just fine with that sentiment as, suddenly, Gwen groaned. _"Man have we passed that much time already? Sorry Peter but I still got a lot of review material to get through. I'll talk to you some other time, okay?"  
_  
"Hey it's cool, I've still got some studying to finish up myself. I'll talk to you later" With that the call ended as you and Gwen gave your mutual goodbyes. As you set your phone down you quickly started to dig back into your work, sighing as you rolled your neck out and went through the material again...  
  
You were getting pretty hungry, now that you weren't distracted by talking with Gwen.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

After several hours of studying broken up by only a little time with a friend, you finally took a good long hard look at yourself and realized something... you were getting pretty hungry. So you decided to do your best to force yourself out of the divot you'd made in your mattress from not moving for several hours and slowly work your way down to the kitchen. Your still healing body cricked and cracked as your bones readjusted to actually moving around, that sleepy feeling in your left leg slowly giving way as you stretched out and yawned. Alright; make a sandwich, maybe grab a soda to help get you to wake back up and then head back up to your room to study.  
  
Judging by how hungry you were maybe you should make that two... maybe three sandwiches. Yeah, three sandwiches sounded good right about now. As you descended the stairs your eyes wandered from their goal, from your own, the kitchen and all the wonderful food you could make in it and glanced over to the living room. There Aunt May sat, a wistful expression on her face as she looked over some photos. Well that was nice and all but you had some food to make and some studying to get back to! Sure you basically hadn't talked to your Aunt all weekend while you were studying and that meant that you'd actually managed to shower more than speak to your only other relative currently in the city at the moment but, hey, you were sure she understood. You had books you'd already read twice now to study and food that was still going to be in the fridge even if you took time to stop and talk to her to eat!  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Wait.  
  
"Hey there Aunt May, what're you looking at?" Thinking better of that course of actions once you took some time to actually think over that depressing series of thoughts, you quickly swung around one of the supports for the staircase to maneuver your way toward the living room, giving Aunt May a bit of a jump as she grabbed at her heart.  
  
"Mercy me, Peter. I didn't even hear you come down. Goodness, I must've been really distracted." Your aunt laughed at herself as she shook her head, causing you to grin as you looked over her shoulder, spying a whole album of photos that she had been picking through.  
  
"Taking a trip down memory lane, are we?" You asked, jokingly, as you ended up quickly picking up a picture. It didn't take long for you to parse out of who exactly it was; even with twenty-nine or thirty odd years difference you could still see the look of your Aunt and Uncle in the two people in the photograph. Admittedly your Uncle was looking a lot more fit than he did these days; while Uncle Ben was by no means hefty or fat, it was clear he'd softened out around the middle as the years had gone on compared to this picture where he looked like your typical soldier, really. Broad shoulders and a box-shaped torso from what must've been months of training. Dressed up in a nice looking uniform not incredibly dissimilar to the one you'd seen him where on his way out last week, Aunt May, dressed in some... well, some decidedly 80s fashion. A long skirt and a dress-y blouse with a floral print on it.  
  
They were a handsome married couple to be sure.  
  
"That's one way to put it. I only usually see your Uncle in that old military uniform of his whenever 4th of July comes around and he gets together with some other veterans to celebrate for a special occasion. Every time I see him in that thing I end up feeling a bit nostalgic and pouring over this old book here." You nodded as Aunt May slipped out another photograph, this one of the two of them at an airport. "Still... this time it brought back slightly different memories, considering that he's going off for a funeral. Been a long, long time since that uniform's seen a funeral. Heck, been a while since that uniform came out for an occasion that wasn't a celebration period." Aunt May shrugged at that as you nodded in some understanding.  
  
"So I thought I'd go ahead and distract myself by looking over some of these. Think about how good he looked in that old uniform back in the day and how happy he seemed to finally get his chance to... how did he put it... 'do his part', if I remember right." Aunt May shook her head at that as she glanced over your way. "I supported him of course. I didn't wholly understand it of course, but I supported his decision. It wasn't like it was all bad either; like I said, Ben looks very nice in that uniform of his. Dashing, I'd even say." You see a slight blush colored your Aunt's cheeks as she flipped another page, few letters taped to various parts of the pages as she did her best to quickly close the book.  
  
Oh-ho! What do we have here exactly?

"Oh ho. What exactly did we have there. Were those a couple of letters I spied attached to the page of your little album, Aunt May?" You gave a shit-eating grin as you slunk yourself over the couch, resting your head in your hand as you just tried to sound as smug as possible.  
  
"Well... yes they were Peter but they hardly matter. Just a few old, old letters kept around for the sake of nostalgia." You couldn't help but roll your eyes at Aunt May's play at trying to push you off asking about those letters.  
  
"You mean like the photos you've been showing off of you and Uncle Ben? Or were you looking at those for some other reason, Aunt May?" You couldn't help but chuckle as you watched Aunt May's mouth open, then close in the realization that she'd immediately talked herself into a slight corner. "Come on Aunt May, you can't just go on being all nostalgic about the stuff in here, let me see the letters and then go off and try to hid them in the most obvious way possible. I'd really like to see what you had in there! Are you shy because they're love letters~" You teased your Aunt a bit at that as she did her best to keep the album out of your hands, causing her to chuckle nervously.  
  
"Oh, no, trust me Peter these aren't love letters."  
  
"Then why are you acting so embarrassed about me seeing them? I mean, I can think of a few reasons." You commented this idly before, immediately, shuddering a bit as the most obvious thought crossed your mind. "Don't tell me they're lewd or something..."  
  
"No!" Immediately May's cheeks turned a bright crimson, your Aunt laughing somewhat hysterically as she shook her head. "Goodness Peter, no, they're not lewd. I'd never put those sorts of letters in an album like this..." You watched as Aunt May stopped for a moment, her eyes flickering as if scanning her memories to reassure herself of this fact. "Yeah, that's right, I wouldn't."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Well the only thing I'm hearing from that is that you're neither confirming or denying the existence of lewd-"  
  
"Well if you really want to see the letters Peter then it's fine!" Aunt May hurriedly brought the book back into the open to cut you off, your Aunt's cheeks read as she started flipping through pages quickly. On the one hand you couldn't help but feel like you'd accomplished your mission to perfection... on the other you felt like you'd potentially learned some things that you really didn't want to.  
  
"Okay but, for real, why act so gun shy about these letters?"  
  
"Well... it was a slightly different time Peter. Your Uncle was a bit more... hmmm, brash, I would say is the best word, in the way he spoke. Very plainly, very upfront. I wouldn't want you to pick up any of those habits even accidentally, especially considering you go to such a nice school." Okay, you guessed you got that. "Still, you're fifteen so I should probably trust that you can know the difference between speech suitable for polite company and speech that isn't."  
  
"Well yeah, totally." You said with a nod as Aunt May found the pages with the letters again. "But come on Aunt May. Even if I wasn't, how crass could Uncle Ben have possible-"  
  
 _Dear May,  
  
Christ alive it is hot as balls out here in the desert.  
_  
Okay maybe you'd underestimated Uncle Ben's language back then going into this. Still, didn't stop you from continuing to read.  
  
 _I didn't quite understand the fashion of the locals but now that I've actually been forced to march around in the desert heat with my family jewels practically glued to my thighs I'd go for it in a heartbeat. It's even hotter because the rat bastard with the stupid mustache we're meant to go kick the ass of this time around (speaking of; am I the only one who's noticed that all of these Goddamn Dictators we end up having to fight seem to have mustaches for some reason? It's like we never stopped fighting the Kaiser or something) has been lighting the oil wells on fire. May, I will never complain about another New York summer for as long as I fucking live. Holy fucking shit.  
  
Part of me was actually excited to come here; a lot of history in the region after all. However, seeing the region a month into invasion, all I have to say is... shit. Place is on hard times. It'd be easy to just chalk up some of what I've seen to the war effort but... a lot of the stuff I've been seeing doesn't seem much like a side-effect of the war. Us being here probably isn't helping much; can't exactly build back up when you're in the middle of fighting tooth and nail.  
  
Don't get me wrong, my sympathies don't extend too far up the ladder though. The people are suffering and my heart goes out to the poor bastards, but that doesn't change the fact that their top brass kicked off this whole bloody mess in the first place by deciding to try and swallow up their Kuwait. Much as I hope the war won't last long so these people can get back to rebuilding their lives and homes we can't let folks like old man Hussein stomp around on the little guy even if it means we gotta turn Baghdad upside down to find him. We've already pretty much shoved his boys out of Kuwait and they're melting away like, well, snow in a desert. Like I said, they're in desperate straits that they're going full scorched Earth in a very literal case with the oil wells.  
  
Still, it's just a stalling effort, not an actual strategy... or at least, so says my commander. He also says it shouldn't be too much longer now. Heck I'll probably be home before the end of the year, I bet.  
  
Can't wait to get back home,  
Ben Parker_  
  
... Well, can't say you ever thought your Uncle talked like that before. He honestly kind of sounded a bit like some of the more swear-y people you saw online.  
  
It was kind of weird; cool and crazy at the same time, considering it was your soft spoken, kindly Uncle Ben you were talking about... well... kind of. Like he was your Uncle Ben but just younger, right?  
  
...  
  
Kind of made your head hurt to think about, not gonna lie.

"Still crass or not that's Uncle Ben alright." You remarked wryly as you looked over the letter and some other letters posted around the page. "Empathetic, passionate, hatred of mustaches... probably why I don't ever see him with more than a five o'clock shadow." You remarked with a dry wit as Aunt May rolled her eyes.  
  
"That has more to do with me threatening him with the couch if he ever grew more than that. His five o'clock shadow is scratchy enough, thank you." You couldn't help but laugh at that barb Aunt May delivered... though, to be frank, you couldn't tell if she was playfully joking and wouldn't have seriously kicked Uncle Ben to the couch or if she was dead serious. Probably best not to find out.  
  
"Anyway, he's definitely changed a lot. I know this was decades ago but it's kind of surreal. Do you even notice this kind of change in people Aunt May, or does it kind of creep up on you?" You were honestly so perplexed; like you thought earlier, while this had the same feel as something Uncle Ben would say nowadays it didn't sound like how he'd say it or how he'd want to say it. Crass, direct, vulgar. Uncle Ben could cut to the heart of an issue, sure, but he usually had a way of wording it that softened the blow or got you to go along with him on his train of thought. This just seemed like, well, a random dude.  
  
"Oh... a little bit of column a., a little bit of column b. Peter." Aunt May remarked with a soft smile as she turned the page, revealing more letters from Ben. "I've known people who basically have gone entirely unchanged from when they were younger, of course, or at least that's how they seem. When I look closer, well, of course they've changed, but it's just been so soft or so on the edges that it can be impossible to pick out. Anna is still full of so much energy and bluster that it's like we're still in High School half the time we talk." Aunt May remarked as she scratched her cheek. "Even with your Uncle, he's changed and gotten older, cooled his heels from when these letters were written... but it was so gradual that it was hard to pick out. Even then though there's still so much of him that remains the Ben I married and fell in love with all those years ago.  
  
"It's rare to see people who change who they are at the very core of their beings, Peter... but it can happen. It just usually takes time... and by the time it happens you're usually too comfortable with the change to even notice it." You nodded along with that as Aunt May turned the page again, read scanned her eyes over some of the letters... and then immediately slammed the book shut. "Oh well would you look at the time! I have to go do the laundry before Ben gets back home! Peter, weren't you up to something else, I'm sure you've been wasting your time going down memory lane with this old lady." Aunt May laughed as she picked up the album and quickly tried to book it, leaving you blinking in confusion for a moment...  
  
...  
  
"OH MY GOD, THERE WAS SOMETHING LEWD IN THERE, WASN'T THERE?" You declared, half horrified and half scandalized as you jumped up and followed after Aunt May.  
  
Family... sometimes trips down memory lane with them were well and truly perilous, with pitfalls everywhere. Sometimes you were better off with your books...  
  
...  
  
Oh right, food!


	36. Meet Maxwell Dillion

Well, to call today soul crushing thus far would be a bit of an understatement. Not soul crushing through disappointment of course; you could at least feel a little confident in your test scores before you'd actually know them in due time. No, no, you weren't disappointed and worried over your tests at all... but still, your soul was being crushed.  
  
By standardized testing.  
  
The monotony of filling in every last little bubble, the multiple choice, the short essays, the everything that was packed into these exams was just hard to actually get invested in. Sure, you knew that this was your future and would be a big part of determining your grade but, man, if there was one thing that could just knock the wind out of your sails and leave you feeling like you'd done literally nothing all day and still ended up feeling drained mentally, it was standardized testing. Everyone else seemed to be feeling it too; even though it was only the first couple days everyone was clearly pretty down on the tests. Heck, a lot of them probably had a lot more reason to be than you; you were pretty sharp all things considered, after all. Anyone who was less intelligent than you was bound to have to worry about their less studied classes.  
  
It all just came together to form this miasma around the school. You were honestly just kind of sleepwalking through the day and, until the bell rang, you were fairly certain that nothing would actually-  
  
"Uh... hey there Peter."  
  
...  
  
You glanced over from your locker where you stuffed your books back in, done with some last minute studying during lunch before the next exam. Standing there, right there, not so far off from you with a slightly pensive look was none other than Liz Allen, the daughter of the Vulture and someone you'd very recently rescued as Spider-Man. You hadn't actually talked to her since then, feeling a little bit awkward over your role in the entire thing as Spider-Man. In this case, however, said awkwardness was further enhanced by how pensive she seemed... and by the fact that Flash Thompson was watching over the proceedings from some odd distance.  
  
Well on the bright side you were lulled into a daze by your tests anymore.  
  
"Uh, hey Liz." You answered back as you pulled a few test supplies from the locker before closing it so that you might turn your full attention to the young woman. "Nice to see you. You're looking... you know, uh, better." You didn't quite know how to open up a conversation here; in truth you'd never actually spoken much to Liz before and, to the degree you had, it hadn't been Peter Parker talking, it had been Spider-Man. So keeping that expected distance where you were Peter Parker and basically knew nothing about her and weren't, you know, the guy who put her dad in jail was... well, awkward.  
  
Even more awkward than being randomly approached by one of the most popular girls in your grade.  
  
"Thanks. I have been getting there just, you know, taking some time." Liz said as she gave a slight nod to that, clapping her hands together as she seemed to be gathering her words carefully. You waited for her; after all, she was the one who approached you, so it would be best to just sit back and let her say... well, whatever it was she had on her mind to say.  
  
Whatever she had on her mind that included Flash watching things. You wondered what was up...  
  
"So... Flash told me about how you were there when I got kidnapped."  
  
Oh. Duh. That explained it.  
  
"Y-Yeah, I was." You commented, coughing into your fist as you kept 'twice' off of your lips. "Sorry for not saying so before... or, not sorry?" You said, unsure of where you should go with this. "I just figured that, you know, you got done getting kidnapped by a group of guys and saved by that guy, Spider-Man right, and so... you know, jumping in with 'hey I was there too' seemed... tactless?" You scratched the back of your head as you spoke. Hey, you weren't lying either; it would've felt incredibly tacky if you jumped in on Liz's moment coming back or out of the blue while she was dealing with all of this in order to tell her 'hey I helped or tried to help save you', especially when you were already busy picking her brain as Spider-Man. That would've just felt like a bit of a dick move.  
  
"Yeah, I get it. I appreciate it too; I needed a bit of time to get my head on straight... you know, twice, so I do appreciate that, Peter." Sounds like it was even the right call! Right on. "That being said, that's pretty much why I came over this way. I want to thank you for trying your best to help." Liz said, bowing her head ever so slightly as she did so.  
  
"Oh, come on. I just placed a call to the police and got Flash to run to the principal's office. Police weren't even the ones who saved you, right?" You said, feeling a bit stupid; of course they weren't, you'd even brought up Spider-Man earlier.  
  
"I know, but that's not what I mean. Sure, the police didn't save me so your call didn't really do anything... unless, you know, Spider-Man would've found out through that somehow. Which... you know, that's not the point." You watched as Liz shook her head; you could see, even beyond the awkwardness of this particular conversation, that Liz seemed a bit at odds with herself bringing up Spider-Man. You couldn't necessarily blame her; save her one week, get her dad arrested the next. That would be some pretty heavy stuff. "The point is that you tried and that you were there for Flash to help keep him in line after everything happened. You didn't have to do anything you did, heck I'm sure most people wouldn't have blamed you for running at the first sign of trouble considering your conditions, you know."  
  
"Yeah, my conditions." Asthmatic, scrawny, spectacled. Yeah, you cut the portrait of someone who'd cut and run at the first sign of trouble. Intentional but, still, these days being aware of how people looked at you before was... you know, ouch. All the more so because you could so easily see that yourself now that you weren't all those things.  
  
"So... yeah, thank you for helping to save me... Flash is grateful too." You heard a slight choke from further down the hall, Flash huffing as he looked down a ways, keeping an eye out for other peers, as Liz just gave and appreciative smile.

You swear to God, it takes every bit of self-control you have to your name to not say 'anytime' in response to Liz's appreciation. Dear Lord you were still so bad at this. However, self-control maintained you just did your best to smile and wave it off goodnaturedly.  
  
"It's fine, really. I'm just glad nobody got seriously hurt during all of this. Truth be told I wasn't even sure it was necessarily anything _bad_ that was going down. I thought maybe you were being pranked or something. I just ended up coming along because when Flash came into the lunch hall after you left... well, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Even if it seemed like the setup for a prank, seemed kind of weird to lay one down on, you know, the most popular guy and girl in our grade." Even more weird that the prank would be laid at the feet of Liz Allen, when you thought about it. You could maybe distantly think that someone would try and pull a fast one on Flash because, well, Flash did earn some chagrin from a lot of people for his jock-y behavior. Someone wanting to pay him back with a prank was...  
  
Well, not understandable because if the prank was particularly bad and did, in fact, involve his girlfriend you could easily see old Flash creaming the guy. Dude might not've been built like Kong but Flash was still a monster truck in his own right. For it to be Liz that was going to be targeted though? That had seemed bizarre, now and even then.  
  
"So I guess I just ended being... you know, a little nosy. Kind of makes being there kind of lame, I know, but I just figured... you know, if someone was actually going to try that I didn't want to just let it happen, you feel me?" You asked with a shrug, Liz thinking to herself and nodding after a moment.  
  
"I can see how it'd look like that from an outside perspective. Use Flash's phone to shoot me a text to walk me into a prank of some kind." Liz frowned as she shrugged, looking off to the side. "If only, right?" Liz asked with a heavy sigh, causing you to wince.  
  
"Y-Yeah, if only. Sorry if that seemed kind of flippant but, well, it really is what got me to come in the first place." Liz shook her head at that.  
  
"No, don't worry, I get it. Heck, kidnapping wouldn't have been my first thought if I were in your shoes either. Flash said that, at first, he was worried that something sneaky was up given his phone was missing. A prank would fit pretty well into it that. Though, what kind of loser would steal somebody's phone in order to prank their girlfriend is beyond me."  
  
"Eh, you never know with some people." You, thankfully, keep yourself from tripping into a 'people can surprise you' cliche, as you figured Liz of all people didn't need that particular nothing of a sentence rubbed into her face considering what had just gone down with her dad.  
  
"True enough. Heck, huge lesson in that with you," Liz said, heaving out a bit of the angst as she did her best to get back to a small smile, "-Peter Parker, sticking around a high stress situation with guns? It's part of why I wanted to thank you. Like I said, I don't think anybody would've blamed you for running but... well, you surprised me. Think you surprised Flash too, even if he might not say it." You nodded at that as you shrugged, readjusting your glasses for effect as you did so.  
  
"Hey, what can I say, it was the right thing to do. Besides, Flash was the one who actually got hurt trying to help you. I was just hanging back waiting for the right time to get help... but like you said, that doesn't matter so much." You cut Liz off before she can reaffirm that idea, causing her to nod.  
  
"Yeah, exactly. Truth be told the only reason it took me this long to get around to thanking you was because... well, you know. You and Flash and some of the other guys. I wasn't exactly sure how welcome I'd be in that situation." You nodded but shrugged your shoulders, a casual grin on your face.  
  
"Hey it's not like you and I have exactly had beef so no worries." Indeed; much as Liz was Flash's girlfriend and spent a lot of time with his crew, she was even less of a concern to you than guys like Randy; whereas even Randy could elbow you in the ribs every now and then, cool as he was generally, Liz never really joined in with Flash's jokes and bullying in the same way that Kong or some of the others did. So you really had no problem with accepting her thanks.  
  
"Well I do. I'm... trying to kind of get a clean slate going forward. A lot of stuff happened and I kind of just want to balance the books, you know. I've read that it's good karma." You nodded at that as Liz looked back to Flash for a moment before looking back at you. "As much as saying thanks is important in that... I figure being one of the two guys who helped me out means I've got more karma to settle. So... let's say I owe you in the future, yeah?" You frown at that, shaking your head.  
  
"Liz, it's fine, I-"  
  
"I know, I know. Right thing, you were only doing it, Flash did more. All true and like I said, I don't feel like that means a 'thanks' is enough karmic payback. Don't get me wrong, I'm not offering to let you do something crazy or offering to be a butler or something crazy like that. Just a little favor if you ever need anything I can help with. Flash will usually listen to me too and, grumpy as he's being over there, I know him well enough to know he feels like he owes you too." You casually glanced back over Flash's way, seeing the blond football star just grimace as he looked yours and Liz's way. "So for real; let's say I owe you a favor. If you need something, like maybe getting Flash off your back or something like that within reason, just say so. It'd make me feel a lot better about this whole affair and... well, [compared to another bit of karma I had to balance out](https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/60362305/), I'm more comfortable with this."  
  
... Well...

"Refusing would probably just annoy you, wouldn't it?" You asked, a slight grin on your face as a similar one formed on Liz's face, a firm nod being your only answer. You rolled your eyes slightly at that but took it with good nature. "Well, in that case... I'll keep it in mind. At your insistence of course. Something for the future."  
  
"Glad to hear it. Like I said, feel free to call it in at any time and all. Just, nothing crazy again." You nodded at that, understanding her point; you'd seen more than enough loony tv shows and anime to know what kind of hijinks a person looking to take advantage of something like this might call in.  
  
"Of course, no problem... though I don't think I'll call it in on Flash." You see Liz blink curiously at that as he scratched the back of your head. "As nice as Flash easing up would be, I'd really rather it be something he decides to do on his own rather than doing it because you asked him. On top of that, if I'm being totally honest, I'd rather you say something to him because you think it's the right thing. Not out of an obligation to pay me back."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Oof..." Liz said, wincing a bit as she dramatically rubbed at her stomach. "Gotta admit Peter, wasn't quite expecting the gut punch from you of all people but, woof." You smile apologetically at that as Liz stands back up straight. "I'll keep that in mind in the future if Flash ever goes a bit beyond hazing though." You smile appreciatively at that as Liz offers a quick nod of her head. "Anyway, I should get going; Flash and I have stuff to pick up ourselves before the next test. Talk to you later Peter." You nodded at that and waved goodbye; you hadn't exactly meant to drop that on her like that at the end there but, well, it was the truth. It wasn't even that you felt particularly bad about Flash; he was annoying and a jerk but at least he wasn't literally physically...  
  
...  
  
Wait did Liz Allen of all people just say she'd talk to you later?

 **xXxXxXxXxXx  
**  
You took a deep breath as you and Ned exited school, the both of you looking worse for the effort after having gotten done with today's exams and tests. As you both walked on down the sidewalk, you both look at each other; Ned is clearly looking much, much less enthused about his tests than you are. Not that you were exactly thrilled, they were draining in their own regard... but... well...  
  
You couldn't help but feel pretty good about your odds, all things considered.  
  
"I told you that you should've studied some of these other classes earlier."  
  
"I know, I know." Ned sighed as he dropped his head into his hands, leaving you to just pat your buddy on the shoulder to reassure him. You would have time to do so; you hadn't ended up getting any calls for any work around the neighborhood and your efforts at canvassing hadn't yielded results yesterday. While that was a bummer, that did mean you'd have a little more time to be there for your best buddy... and you subtly make fun of his poor studying decisions.  
  
Hey, you did tell him after all.

**xXxXxXxXxXx  
**

"You sure Uncle Ben said he'd be back today?"  
  
"I'm sure Peter; he just said he was going to stop and relax with some friends of his and some of the men who went to D.C. with him."  
  
You sighed as you laid back on the couch; it was getting late on in the evening as you waited for Uncle Ben's return. While there were some other things you could've been doing, you couldn't lie and say that you weren't just a bit anxious to see Uncle Ben back home safe and sound. It wasn't often that either your Aunt and Uncle were away from home for extended periods of time, at least not without you. Family trips were one thing but, generally, at most they'd be gone for a few days. They were your only family and the only family you'd known for a long, long time now. So it stood to reason you'd feel a little anxious.  
  
Still, you understood that Uncle Ben might need a little time to unwind even when he got back to New York. This was probably a big moment for him and, given the history, he probably had a lot to process. So you were left waiting... and waiting...  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"No way..." You perked up as you heard a muffled voice from the door, a chorus of laughter and chuckles slowly but surely growing in volume as you started to hear footsteps approach.  
  
"I'm telling you, I barely went a week without hearing that song. The Saudis, poor souls, they didn't know what to make of it when it kept blaring out from our Army base's radio station." Another voice, clearer, but one you definitely didn't recognize immediately.  
  
"He's absolutely right. To this day I can belt out that song from memory, that's how often it was requested." Oh! You definitely knew that one though, it was-  
  
"Come on Ben, you're exaggerating..."  
  
...  
  
 _"From a distance~ The world looks blue and green~!"_ You watched as the front door swung open, a group of guffawing men pushing on through with Uncle Ben as your older relatively started belting out the lyrics to some vaguely familiar song, one that barely tickled the tips of what you'd picked up with cultural osmosis. Most of the men in the group were around Uncle Ben's age, though there were some of the younger guys from Uncle Ben's job too... including, of all people, Max. Uncle Ben continued on for a moment, if only to prove his point to a befuddled, if amused, Max as he glanced around, looking for something... or, as his eyes caught you, someone.  
  
"Ah, there's my nephew!" Uncle Ben let out a laugh as you smiled, getting up to greet your Uncle as he rounded around and gave you a quick hug. Despite the slight smell of alcohol that told you that Uncle Ben had probably gone out to drink with the guys, you returned the hug. "May in Peter, or did she have work to do this evening?" He asked, looking around as you heard Aunt May come in from the kitchen.  
  
"I'm here Ben. Just getting some refreshments ready for our inevitable guests." You saw May smile warmly as she and Ben embraced, your Aunt looking over to the men at the door with a wave and a smile. "There's some water and tea if any of you are parched for something 'real' to drink, fellas."  
  
"Ah May, you're a peach." Ah, that was why it took you so long to recognize that voice; the guy was one of the veterans that you usually only saw around 4th of July celebrations that May and Ben attended. Still, he seemed pretty familiar and friendly with your Aunt and Uncle, the two of them comfortable with letting him, and the others, into the kitchen as you all had your little family reunion.  
  
"Sorry it took me so long to get back you two. Traffic's a _nightmare_ down in D.C. I swear, you'd think it was somewhere important or something." The joke earned a laugh from you and Aunt May as your Uncle, probably exhausted in a lot of ways from his trip and from his night out on New York, collapsed onto his reclining chair, sighing comfortably, the weight of the past week visibly dissipating from him as he wriggled into his favorite seat.  
  
"It's alright Ben, we expected it. Especially with a huge funeral like that there had to be so many people moving in and out." Aunt May went along with Uncle Ben and you nodded along as you picked out your own best seat in the house before the other guests could filter in. As one of the vets passed by Ben's chair they pressed a glass of tea into his hand, your Uncle laughing and toasting him with it before drinking deeply of it. "Still, how was it? Did you see anyone else you knew or meet anyone interesting?" Aunt May asked, first and foremost, as Ben smacked his lips a bit.  
  
"Good tea..." He mumbled slightly, much to May's approval, as he smiled. "I saw a few other guys I haven't seen in... man, feels like decades at this point. A lot of folks ended up coming through. There were of course a lot of the big movers and shakers too. Didn't really get a chance to meet a lot of them but... well, I did get to get pretty up close to the Presidents." Ben nodded his head, a grin on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes which, as they recalled the funeral, seemed a bit tired. "It was pretty exciting; didn't get to actually speak with any of them of course, wasn't that close but... damn. Never even saw the old Commander-In-Chief while he was alive. Got my Purple Heart from one of the other higher ups. It was pretty exciting."  
  
"I bet." Was all you could muster as Uncle Ben shifted around in his seat.  
  
"Ah but let's save that business for later. Turns out, on top of celebrating the old Commander-In-Chief and sending him off to the Pearly Gates, the boys and I had another reason to celebrate tonight." Aunt May nodded understandingly, the mood shifting along with the topic as the vets laughed and gave a slight applause as a number of the mechanics in the room jostled Max, who just sat there with a wide smile. "Max found himself another job! So when his contract with the shop expires he'll have another spot to move right in."  
  
"Oh that's wonderful!" Aunt May declared, clasping her hands together as Max nodded his head.  
  
"Yeah, really is. Wasn't sure if I'd have another job lined up in time but, hey, nailed one." Again there was a chorus of celebrations among the vets and mechanics gathered as Uncle Ben gave you a wide smile, leaning over to get your attention.  
  
"Kiddo, you're gonna love this." You blinked at that, curious, as Uncle Ben waved over at Max. "Max here got himself a position working out of a science lab at ESU as an electrician!"  
  
"NO WAY!" You declared, honestly shocked and hyped for the first time that evening, as you immediately looked over at Max. "For real?" Max and the other laughed as your enthusiasm, the older men chortling at your energy with the younger set were more open about laughing as Max nodded at you.  
  
"For real, Peter. I got myself a nice little position over at ESU. Turns out that degree of mine was worth something after all. I'll be working out of a nice sized lab taking care of the electrical components the lab's gonna be working extensively with. They really wanted someone with expertise."  
  
"It's right up your alley too Peter, these folks are apparently really big on the whole Biology thing." Ben, excitable from a combination of the night out, the drinking and how happy and excited the news was making you, waved Max on as you turned back to the electrician.  
  
"Yeah, maybe you've heard of them Peter? Doctor Curt and Martha Connors and Doctor Miles Warren. I never heard much about them before they picked me up from my application but Ben said you'd probably know them..."  
  
[Probably know them?!](https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/53654608/)

"Do I?" You say with a big old smile on your face as you nodded your head. "The Connors are considered the best biologists in the entire country! They've been rumored for a while to be working on a process for regrowing human limbs as a means of treatment for amputees or people suffering from genetic disorders from birth. If they manage to pull that sort of thing off then it'd be history in the making for a lot of people out there! If there's anyone that could do it it'd be them!" You said eagerly as some of the vets chuckled and looked off to the side.  
  
"Boy, that does sound exciting. Granted, you'll forgive us if we're not quite jumping in on the hype yet there kid. Some of us have been hearing about stuff like this for ages. Hell, Ben's dad over there was still convinced that we'd be having flying cars right about now based on what the science types were saying." You did hesitantly nod at that. Granted, if there was one thing science could be bad at it was making solid predictions about the future. You'd read up on enough old stories to see that some estimations, both good and bad, had been... overblown. No flying cars but also no nuke created hole in the ocean floor... really.  
  
Still-  
  
"I'd say there's maybe a little reason to be confident in this case." Ben said with a smile as he glanced over your way. "Pete here's a smart kid, he usually knows what he's talking about compared to old foggy folks like myself." The vets rolled their eyes at that but smiled and nodded; if you had to guess, they all must've felt the same way about their own family members, grandchildren, nieces and nephews or otherwise. "Plus, well, Rich would talk about the Connors a lot too. Apparently they worked together in some labs where Rich and Mary were hopping around before they ended up settling on Oscorp."  
  
That... actually didn't surprise you. Your dad's biology notes were solid and Uncle Ben always did talk up your dad's ability as a scientist. That he and your mom would've been rubbing elbows with the Connors, another New York based science power-couple, was hardly a surprise now that you really thought about it.  
  
"That's so cool!" You said, your Uncle smiling at that as you leaned forward. "Did dad talk about Doctor Connors much? Were they friends?" You watched as Ben took a moment to process your question, the older man rubbing his chin; you could hear the slight bristling noise of Ben's hand ruffling his five o'clock shadow as he seemed to take a moment to gather his thoughts.  
  
"Yesah.. they talked about their work with the Connors some. They seemed pretty amiable to them too; Rich thought that Connors was as smart as you do, kiddo. Although after..." Ben waved it off. "After a while they talked less and less about them. Eventually your mom and Rich got the job at Oscorp and they stopped talking about the Connors altogether." Huh, well alright then.  
  
"The Connors are real nice folks. Their son's a bit of a rascal but, well, kids his age tend to be." Max spoke up, a slight chuckle and nods of agreement going through the room as Uncle Ben and Aunt May welcomed the move from the topic at hand.  
  
"We've been talking about this Connors guy for a bit, but the way Max tells it we've got two scientists in that lab. What about this Miles guy there kid, you know much about him?" One of the younger mechanics asked; clearly he was asking because your earlier excitement had amused him but, well, truth be told...  
  
"Not much actually. I just know that he's some biologist himself and that he's been working with the Connors. That's about all I know about Mr. Warren." You said as Aunt May nodded.  
  
"Indeed, this is the first we're hearing about him too. If he was working while Richard and Mary were then they didn't run into each other." Max nodded as he raised a hand.  
  
"Mr. Warren's a bit younger than Doctor Connors. Not by too much, I think, you can at least see some grey in his mustache starting to poke out, but maybe that'd be why?" Max asked with a shrug as Ben chuckled.  
  
"Or maybe he's just playing lab assistant to the Connors." He suggested with a hoarse laugh as the other veterans in the room joined in, Aunt May slapping your Uncle's shoulder as he raised his hands in defense.  
  
"Well even if he is I'm thankful; they seem to be a pretty tight knit lab between the three of them and if shot me down I might not've gotten the job. Thankfully they all liked my credentials and so, well, I got a seriously good paying job for the foreseeable future." The other mechanics grinned as one elbowed him in the ribs.  
  
"Listen to this guy. Gets a cushy job in some University that'll make him 'Mr. Moneybags' and he has the gall to act all humble in front of us little guys." Max gave a sharp bit of laughter himself as he shoved the mechanic back, the room taking a moment to just soak in the atmosphere as others slapped Max on the back for his good fortune.  
  
"Be sure to remember us when you're making your fortune working at ESU there Max. I hear that's where all the millionaires make their money these days." Uncle Ben joked as Max rolled his eyes.  
  
"Maybe if they're the Deans." Another round of raucous laughter ensued as Max smiled goodnaturedly at everyone, shrugging his shoulders. "Still, think I'll still prefer hanging with you guys if you don't mind. Connors and Warren are a bit dry for my taste."  
  
"Hey it's no problem at all, we could use a designated driver." One of the mechanics said, causing another round of laughter as Ben's eyes twinkled a bit.  
  
"Besides, just because they might not be your company, doesn't mean they're not everyone's. I'm sure Peter here would love to meat the Connors and Warren." You nodded in agreement with that as the laughter died down. Yeah, totally, you'd love...  
  
Wait.  
  
What-  
  
"Hmmm, trying to use our friendship to get your nephew a sneak preview of the lab there Ben? Seems downright nepotistic if you ask me and I can't help but be appalled at the suggestion... at least, I will be until you grease my palms a bit." The group all chuckled at that, Max giving you a wink as he looked your way. "Is your Uncle right, kid? That something you'd be interested in?"

"I-I wouldn't want to impose..." You started, somewhat shakily. It wasn't even that you were nervous and it was making you stutter; you were excited. So, so excited by the prospect of this happening that you could barely contain yourself. This was a huge chance for you to meet some of the best minds in biology, to talk with them and see what their lab was like. You wanted a chance, an opportunity, to see into the world you were studying so hard to get into... and here it was, right in front of you. "But... but it would be amazing." You finally admitted as you now held your breath.  
  
You watched as Max slowly rubbed his chin, a long dramatic hum accompanying the gesture that just made you dig your nails even further into the couch as you waited in anticipation. You didn't even particularly care that some of the other guys were laughing a bit at your reaction; sure you were overreacting a bit but you just couldn't help yourself. Finally you saw Max give you a grin as he shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Let me work there for a couple more weeks before asking. They like me enough as is so I'm sure if I keep sweet-talking them they'll be open to offering a little tour to a little guy like you. Maybe if I even had something to grease the wheels a bit..." Max said again as he thought for a moment, May smiling as she clapped her hands together.  
  
"Well, Peter is set to take his exams for this Semester this week! He's bound to do well; maybe you could use some good grades to show Connors that Peter's doing well..." Max snapped his fingers at that, a grin on his face.  
  
"That's a great idea. Connors isn't looking for any interns yet, he's just rounded up this new kid, Eddie, into working at his lab but he's usually a real softy for giving tours of the lab to encourage young kids in the field. I might still be able to do it without the grades but..."  
  
"Well hey, stack that on top of the laundry list of reasons I have for wanting to do well on these finals!" You said with a huge rush of excitement! This was it! If you could pass your finals, heck, maybe not even all of your finals but your Science finals then you could maybe, possibly... TOTALLY GET INTO A CERTIFIED SCIENCE LAB RUN BY ONE OF THE BEST BIOLOGISTS IN THE FIELD! "Sorry everyone, I think I need to go study real quick!" Your Aunt and Uncle and their assembled guests all laughed at that as you immediately jumped off the couch, breaking into a slow-ish sprint, as Uncle Ben turned to watch you go.  
  
"Don't sprain anything there kiddo, studying won't do you any good if you put too much pressure on yourself."  
  
"I won't Uncle Ben... oh!" You quickly ducked back down the stairs. "And thank you Ben, Max, really!" You see Max shrugs again as he takes another sip of tea while your Uncle just casually shrugged his shoulders, a warm smile on his face.  
  
"Anytime Peter, anytime." You smiled and nodded as you ran back up to your room, ready to get going!


	37. A Pleasant Conversation

Man, you needed this.  
  
You sighed gratefully as he swung through the increasingly cold weather, Autumn slowly giving way to Winter in New York City as your thermals kept you warm and snug as a bug in a rug underneath your costume. Fixing up what little damage that Hobbie had done had been a matter of just letting your healing factor run for about a week and, from there, taking a little time out of your day to sew up the minor cuts and holes he'd put in the wrists of your thermals and costume had been short work. It'd been a while since you just went swinging through the city, or well, a while for you anyway and, man, was it relaxing.  
  
Yeah, going out and fighting crime might not have been considered a relaxing activity to most people but, well, most people weren't high school students in the middle of their exams. It was just mentally exhausting to keep up the repetitive, mind-numbing task involved in filling out all those answers, even if you knew it was important for you to do so. Especially now that possibly visiting Doctor Connor's lab was on the line. However, that didn't really change things; the single-minded approach to this was just nuts as far as taking a toll on your sanity and so you needed a change of pace...  
  
Especially after you'd stuck your nose in your books for so long. You needed a bit of activity a bit of fun. Outside of the Vulture and Hobbie, well, this whole Spider-Man thing was fun! Beating up bad guys had both the upside of being morally righteous and a nice way of helping your community and, you know, super fun to do. Quipping while jumping around, avoiding bullets and just soaring through the air like some kind of human, justice-seeking bullet was a blast in its own way. When it came with the added benefit of just getting you out of the house, away from your books and away from school? Like you said, that was something you really needed.  
  
Plus... well, it'd be nice to knock around the heads of a few people you didn't know. Having talked to Liz, while she was at least seemingly at piece with the blame her dad had to take in this, it was a reminder that you'd delivered a body blow to her family life, even if it was mostly her dad's fault. Hobbie hadn't been in school the past few days either. You hadn't talked to anyone about it yet, mostly because the people who'd know the most about this would be Flash and his group, plus maybe Liz, but also because you didn't want to be seen sticking your nose into another Spider-Man thing so soon.  
  
It was a reminder that even people you knew could turn to crime if pushed into the wrong situations... or, if in Adrian's case, they were just primed to go off like a bomb in the first place. Which was rough to deal with; it was way, way easier to just knock around the skulls of a few random thieves, maybe some drug dealers, and call it a good deed well done without having to think too hard about their own families.  
  
Hey at least you were getting the introspective part of being a superhero down pat, right?  
  
Plus... well, this did give you an opportunity. When you brought it up, Hobbie denied having been behind the robbery at the Guggenheim. The cat burglar you caught was still in jail so it wasn't him either. While you were content to just say it was a random occurrence at this point, as the string of robberies you'd witnessed were pretty much over now that he was behind bars...  
  
Speaking of, if you didn't want to accidentally slip up and let people know what was up, maybe it was best for you to start mentally referring to him by the moniker the Daily Bugle had given the thief behind the string of robberies. It was another good one too, you couldn't lie, so might as well just start calling him 'The Prowler'.  
  
Seriously who comes up with these names? Pretty solid.  
  
"Dammit O'Hirn! Watch where you're going! You almost made me drop the loot!"  
  
"Hey you're the one who's s'posed to be calling out steps and stuff! Not my fault you ain't doin' your job!"  
  
Well, someone was being awfully loud. You grinned as you let go of your Webbing, quickly dropping down onto a nearby roof as you glanced down from across another building. An old looking building that looked like of like it should've housed a [series of apartments](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7475956,-73.8975956,3a,75y,196.29h,85.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVpWfpyS7ch7d-wE5wadz8w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) was where you'd heard the voices coming from, your eyes peeled for any sign of trouble as you quickly looked at your phone to figure out... well, what you were looking at exactly...  
  
Queens Electronic? It didn't have a proper image on the Google page for it...  
  
Still, sure enough, two goons were slowly working their way out and through the property carrying a pretty large box with a nice, HD TV inside of it. Presumably, anyway, given the front cover of the box. Who knew what was actually inside of it. It took a moment for the goons to get out of the ways of the trees and...  
  
Hey, would you look at that! It was those two chuckle-heads who mistook you for Frank Castle when you first met them. God, what were their names... O'Hirn was one... right! Flint and O'Hirn. The two most goon-looking crooks you'd come across so far, and one of them with the intelligence to match. They got out of jail this soon? You did suppose it was just aggravated robbery but, man, that was pretty quick. Ah well, you said you wanted a relaxing beat down of a couple crooks and it looks like whatever was in charge of listening to teenage pleas against boredom had decided to take pity on you.  
  
Now then, how to go about this, you wondered to yourself...

"I mean... uh, I didn't actually plan on talking to you, really." You admitted, shrugging your shoulders as Harry gave a short 'oh'. "You were going to trip so I thought I'd step in and try to keep you from doing so. It was just kind of a coincidence, truth be told." Well this really didn't go how you were expecting. At best you thought that you might offhandedly ask if Harry was holding up before passing him in the hall to move onto your next class. Like you said, while you didn't dislike him, if you and the other members of the school were in a separate kind of group for reasons of pure social association, you being a nerd, Harry was in a different sort of group for much more substantial reasons. The guy's dad was loaded while you were probably lucky to have your Aunt and Uncle considered lower middle-class in a good year.  
  
You didn't really think you'd end up striking up a conversation, even a short one, with one of the richest kids in the entire school. You were just looking to help him out a bit... though, on the other hand-  
  
"Sorry about that. Just usually folks don't walk up to me too much unless they have something in mind. You know... well, actually, you might not know how it is but... well-" You watched as Harry scratched the back of that mane of red hair of his, a focused look of thought on his face. "Maybe you do have an idea but with something different like... I dunno. Studying or tutoring or... you know what never mind I think I've gone on way too far of a tangent."  
  
"I mean... nah." You lied, but hey, it was polite.  
  
"Point is I'm not exactly used to people just... well, walking up." Yeah you were about to say, you understood why Harry would jump to that assumption that you wanted something from him. That's probably how most people at this school treated him... heck, the expectation that this was the case seemed to be so drilled into him that he pretty much preempted this with Flash and his group by readily offering his money and status to them in order to hang out and have a good time. It was a weird sort of social situation that Harry found himself in, in your opinion. Where he was probably as popular as his money could let him be but it was mostly because people wanted some of that money from him.  
  
He didn't help the perception by being so free with it but, hey, it was his dad's money and he was free to do whatever he wanted with it right? Free country and all that. Still...  
  
"Sounds pretty exhausting if that's the case. Can't say that I've ever had that happen to me, even with studying. You know, the whole nerd stigma getting in deep there." You commented idly at that as Harry just nodded.  
  
"Yeah I guess I can see that. Just didn't think about it immediately; after all, my dad says that it's the smart folks who end up being the real movers and shakers and running things when all's said and done. I guess I kind of have to keep getting used to the fact that smarts doesn't count for much in high school social stuff." You nodded at that; it would certainly explain why Harry was never much of an active participant in any of Kong's and Flash's schemes despite how badly he seemed to want to hang out with them. If his dad had this kind of opinion on smarts then, well, maybe that explained why Harry never got himself easy points on dunking on you with Flash and Kong.  
  
Well appreciated in either case, at any rate.  
  
"Anyway, yeah, sorry or... not sorry for not living up to that expectation?" You asked, curious, as Harry just laughed a bit, a bit of a nasally thing as he shook his head.  
  
"Not sorry is good by me in this case." Harry shook out his head at that, scratching at the mess of hair on his head as he looked back at the loose backpack he'd nearly tripped over. "Man, I can't believe I nearly wiped out on a backpack. I should've been able to see it but... man." Harry dragged his hand down his face in comedic fashion, causing you to smirk a bit at how tired he was acting... though how much of that was acting and how much of that was genuine given the state exams seemed to be leaving everyone in was an open question. "These tests just go on forever. Feel like my legs start falling asleep by the time they let us stand up to do anything. I must've been sleepwalking or something when that bag just came out of nowhere."  
  
You couldn't help but choke on a chuckle at that.  
  
"Yeah, someone really needs to keep an eye out for those random jumping bags. They'll get you."  
  
"Well good to know a smart guy's agreeing with me; must mean I'm onto something." Harry commented as he shrugged. "Though me grousing about exams you could probably sleep through probably isn't exactly the most impressive thing for you to agree with, I imagine." He said with a sheepish scratch of his cheek.

"Well now I just feel super offended by that." You said as you crossed your arms in faux outrage... though outrage you began to regret when you saw Harry actually wince a bit at the statement. To quickly relieve him of any such worries you gave a quick grin as you shrugged your shoulders. "That only applies to _half_ the tests, thank you very much. I have to actually work for the rest." You see Harry relax immediately at that, giving a soft chuckle as he bowed his head apologetically.  
  
"Oh please, forgive me. The Osborn Family wouldn't be able to stand for such a mistake to have been laid at your feet." You graciously accepted his apology with little more than a flick of your wrist, allowing Harry to rise back up as you gave him a quick grin.  
  
"But seriously, grouse away. I might've been able to basically sleep through most of today's exams but even I can't argue that these tests aren't just a major pain to get through. Mentally exhausting to have to spend all this time just filling in stuff."  
  
"Yeah, I could imagine that'd be the case just for how boring it'd be." Though Harry was clearly half joking, sarcastically ribbing how easy it was for you, you rolled with it and rolled your eyes.  
  
"Yeah, basically. Still, these tests are basically my specialties; I had to cram pretty hard for Civics in order to make sure I could do well in that class and that was just a whole other ballpark itself. So it's hard to blame you, or anyone, for feeling exhausted by these things. I'm personally looking forward to Christmas just for the sake of letting my brain rest." Well, letting your brain rest when it came to non-Spidey stuff anyway but, still, rest from school was at least in order. Harry nodded his head at that, the glib look folding back a bit into a more friendly understanding.  
  
"I get that; drudgery can really try people's last nerves from what I've been told." Drudgery. Yeah that was a good way to describe this last week of exams, especially the easy ones. "Appreciate the sympathy in that case. Good to know that even the smart guys at this school have the same feelings about these tests that I do."  
  
"I like to think that boring school work crosses all different kinds of divides when it comes to hating it myself." You both chuckled at that, Harry nodding in some agreement as the five minute bell rang. You groaned a bit, knowing that another set of exams were set to be dropped into your lap as soon as you got to the next class. Harry, however, seemed a bit more anxious as he gave you an apologetic look.  
  
"Ah heck, I held you up there didn't I?" Harry muttered, frowning a bit at that as you shook your head.  
  
"Nah, it's cool. I didn't really have anything to do before the next set of papers anyway. The five minute bell's more or less just a formality." You really didn't have much in mind except for just scooting over to your next class anyway. Stopping to have a little talk and commiserate with one of your fellow classmates was just a good way to blow off steam. "Besides, having some time to just moan about this is great for relieving some of the pressure, you know?"  
  
"Trust me, I'm right there with ya." You watched Harry adjust his backpack at that as he paused for a moment before extending his hand out to shake yours. "Nice talking to you Peter, wasn't quite expecting it to be so nice." You shrugged as you extended out and shook his hand.  
  
"Like I said, I enjoyed it well enough. Always happy to have a chat with folks who aren't looking to rib me." You see Harry laugh at that as he adjusted his backpack again.  
  
"Yeah for real... hey, who knows, maybe if we run into each other again then we can grouse some more." You see Harry looking over his shoulder as he said that; likely on the lookout for Flash and Kong or someone else who might give him some grief over talking to you... well, maybe grief was a strong word... then again considering it was Harry he might just consider even harsh ribbing grief. It was hard to say...  
  
Still, it wasn't exactly unappealing. Heck, despite all appearances this conversation with Harry Osborn of all people had been a little fun. Why not.  
  
"Could be fun." You remarked, simple and short so as to not appear too too eager as Harry nodded along.  
  
"Cool, cool." Ann approach that Harry himself seemed well versed in by now, for perhaps obvious reasons. "Well, we both got that useless email service with the school so maybe I'll shoot you an email sometime. For now I should really get going."  
  
"Same. Catch ya later Harry."  
  
"Later." With that the two of you parted ways as you started heading off to your next class. It wasn't until much, much later where the full fact of the matter hit you; that you'd just had a pleasant conversation the kid of one of the richest people in New York City...  
  
Weird path for your circle of acquaintances to take but, hey.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

You couldn't help but smile to yourself as you slowly positioned yourself on the wall of a nearby building. There were trees lining the way into this rather innocuous building so you'd have a good place to hang these two guys up for the cops once you were done with them... and a nifty place to have your own high ground in this fight. Your rough battle plan put into your head you quickly went through the motions of firing your Web Shooters, though you do your best to precede it with a quip.  
  
"He-ey! Flint, O'Hirn, it's good to see you two? Gosh, what has it been since we last saw each other, a month? How have you guys been? The slammer treat you both right?" You fire your Web Shooters off almost immediately; while Marko seems a bit slow on the uptake of the situation O'Hirn, surprisingly, is the one to spot you out in the time you gave in between your quip. One Webline slams into Flint's hand, giving you a very solid connection to him, while Alex wisely departs the TV box you were looking to, eventually, Web him onto. These strands could take a bit to accomplish that. That plan went a bit out the window though as, with that motion to dodge, the two crooks ended up dropping the TV on the ground.  
  
"Oh man... OH MAN!" Marko whined slightly when the box containing the TV hit the ground and then immediately panicked when he took full notice of what, exactly, had stuck itself onto the back of his hand.  
  
"Hey! It's that Spider-Creep from the store! The one that made us t'ink he was that other creep!"  
  
"Oh man what the Heck's he doing here?!" You couldn't help but grin; having amused yourself by starting with the overly familiar tone you sought to keep it up even as you quickly jumped on over to one of the nearby trees, pulling Marko up by his Webbed up hand as you did so. With the box on the ground and out of their hands, the idea of Webbing them to it had to be shortchanged for the rest of your plan. Ah well, it'd still work.  
  
"Well you see I came here because I heard that there was this great deal on TVs that this store was giving out. I'm a poor, poor Spider you see so I don't exactly have the dosh to put down for retail... but you guys seem to have angled for an even better deal; free." You sighed wistfully as you shook your head. "You see, this is why you guys are the criminal masterminds while I'm the poor slob in pajamas." You commented glibly, Marko desperately struggling about in your Webbing as his feet kicked around while Alex... well, Alex got angry.  
  
"Man, you runnin' your mouth is even more annoying now than it was before!" You imagined so; before they probably ignored it thinking that you were Frank Castle and, therefore, were about to kill them. They must've seen one of the news reports about you in the meantime... though definitely not on the TV that O'Hirn chucked at you like a shot put. Especially after it crashed into the ground after sailing just barely under the branch you were standing on.  
  
"Oof, you know I was almost proud of you for a second there Alex. You at least remembered to get a warranty, right?" This only served to turn Alex's face an even more hilarious shade of red while you went about trying to set up the rest of this little bust.  
  
"Why don't you come down here and say that to my face you little creep? I'll pulverize you into pulp!" Alex shook his fists as he said that, causing you to chuckle as you shook your head, firing off two other Weblines at both crooks.  
  
"Nah, think I'll go ahead and stay up here thank you very much. Much better view of the show." You manage to snag Flint's other hand, the crook grousing as he tried to fight back against the Webbing. An effort which proved very much in vain when you stuck both Weblines together and, in effect, tangled them up in his hands. Alex, on the other hand, just ducked out of the way again with a surprising amount of grace. "What a view it is too! Gotta hand it to you O'Hirn, you're putting up a bit more of a fight than Flint here."  
  
"Just you wait, when I get him down then you'll be sorry!" When he got him down, what did he... oh. Oh that's adorable. You watched, a smile hidden by your mask, as O'Hirn ran over and, with a pretty impressive jump for a guy his size, managed to reach up and grab at Marko's feet. He was left dangling himself thanks to the effort and so could only swing around and pull as best he could in order to try and force the Weblines out of your grip. It was a solid effort that was totally wasted all things considered and that, really...  
  
"AGH! O'HIRN, YOU DUMBASS, LET GO! I AIN'T A GODDAMN STRETCH ARMSTRONG!" Only accomplished making Flint look really uncomfortable from the pulling. Yeouch, that couldn't be comfortable. You looked at the situation, O'Hirn not letting go and the both of them being... well, a solid handful of feet off the ground right beneath/above each other. The opportunity was too rich for you to not use. So you use your not inconsiderable strength in order to pull up on both of them, getting another foot or so before, well-  
  
"Woops." You commented idly as you dropped both crooks, the both of them screaming as they fell back down onto the ground, collapsing onto a pile and tangling up in each other once your Webbing got down there to intermingle with them. Before they could even begin to start sorting themselves out you immediately started spraying strand after strand of Webbing across them and into their pile, doing your best to tangle them up to leave them... well...  
  
"Well I've had prettier looking Web traps but this one will definitely do." You said out loud, mostly to yourself, as you quickly dropped down to the ground. You dusted your hands off as you looked over your work, smiling at the sight of Alex and Marko struggling against your Webbing in order to try and escape. It was a pretty amusing sight, truth be told.  
  
"Damn bug, we're gonna... squash you as soon as we get out of this."  
  
"Ah cram it O'Hirn..." Marko remarked as his partner continued to try and struggle.  
  
Yeah, this was exactly what you needed.

"Aw, goodness." You said, a small smile forming under your mask as you looked down at the pair of them. "Would you just look at the two of you? Snug as a bug in a rug... or well, two bugs in a Spider's Web. Still, pretty snug if you ask me." If decidedly lethal for the bugs in the case of the Spider, but probably best not to belabor that point. You only just shook off the Frank Castle Connection, no need rattling their nerves by making them think about Spiders and their prey.  
  
"Oh boy, you hear that O'Hirn, more jokes. Couldn't have seen that coming from a mile away." Flint Marko groused as he struggled as best he could, the man in the striped sweater giving you such a glare as he grit his teeth. "Keep being smug there ya pest, sooner or later we'll swat you like a fly on a counter."  
  
"Yeah, like with the big rolled up newspaper and everything!" Marko sighed at Alex as the larger, but also clearly dumber of the two, over-explained the joke. You just kept right on smiling as you dusted off your hands.  
  
"Well, while you guys work on making that dream a reality, and boy howdy let me just say good luck to you two boys on that one, that I'm looking forward to when we next do this. For real, this was really, really nice. We really need to do it again." Honestly though as much as you did feel really relieved at having the chance to bounce crooks around as Spider-Man again, you didn't really mean that. You'd like it if crooks stayed off the streets and stayed in jail for a while... but, well, it was New York and they really didn't threaten anyone with anything too serious in either arrest. So chances were good that they'd be out sometime in the future. Maybe another month or two...  
  
If that was the case and they went back to crime then, well, you'd just have to put them right back in.  
  
"Seriously, have your people call my people... crooks like you do still get lawyers right?" The two of them practically growled at you over that jab as you fired off a Webline to attach to a nearby building. "Also, thanks for being my first repeat customers! Seriously, it's loyal folks like you who keep Spider-Man Inc. running! Later!" With that you pulled on the Webline with a great deal of force and then used the spring of the Web correcting itself to launch yourself up and out of there, leaving a chorus of cursing behind you as you did so.  
  
One could hope that these two would learn their lesson, clean up their act and give up crime after being foiled twice in a row... but, well, if they didn't then Spider-Man would just have to stop them again. Though you imagined the fun of clobbering them would get old...  
  
Eventually.  
  
Maybe.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
Agh. Nothing. Again. You were going up and down all the streets you had been before, looking around the places you'd gotten calls before and tried to make yourself available to the folks in the parts of the neighborhood where you'd posted the fliers but it seemed like no one was biting. You knew to expect this to a certain degree; with leaves being raked and gutters being cleaned out you knew some of the more available fall jobs would dry up sooner or later... but to have the winter jobs be slow in replacing them was just agonizing. The weather was taking a colder and colder turn but still it seemed like people weren't putting up offers to work on the various little odds and ends that came with the weather...  
  
Ugh. Well, there was nothing to be done about bad luck, you guessed. Better to just head home if nothing was going to bite. Besides, it'd keep you from getting too, too cold at any rate...  
  
"Hey kid, wanna make a few bucks real fast?" You turned your head up a nearby driveway. You had to admit; the rough nature of the voice and the... well, the exact phrasing of the offer was enough to put you on edge just a tiny bit. However, that edge was quickly put at ease when you saw a man in a large van opening up the back of the vehicle to reveal a whole bunch of groceries. "Getting Goddamn cold out here and I've been out in it all day. Help me take these in and I'll slide you some bills for your trouble?"  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You know what?  
  
"Sure thing mister."  
  
Beggars couldn't be choosers... and besides, if he was up to something funny you were a secret superhero. What could this guy possibly do? The risk was worth a little potential money.


	38. Send in The Clowns

Honestly, you weren't sure what to expect when it came to the email that sat in your inbox. On the one hand you had agreed to the idea with Harry and, hey, even been quite happy when he ended up emailing you after all. The dude had been pleasant, if nothing else, to talk to and you had meant the offer when you'd extended a hand out for him to reach you over the school's official email service. You'd just been surprised is all; like with so many things you kept expecting to wake up one day and find out that, hey, it wasn't real after all. Your powers, your identity as Spider-Man, your new friends and acquaintances. So many things had been changing for you after the Spider Bite that, on some level, you expected it all to snap back to the old normal sometime, anytime. Or that, at the very least, your life would resemble your old one.  
  
Especially in this case. Harry Osborn, richest kid in the school and the guy who wanted nothing more than to be a permanent fixture in Flash's circle of friends? Surely not, right? Surely you couldn't possibly establish a sort of limited connection with the guy to the point you'd be swapping emails. Turns out, however, that a little confidence, a little being forward and just talking to people opened up way more doors than you thought back when you were asthmatic, weak and... well okay you were still a nerd but now you were a nerd with Superpower backed confidence rather than... weaker than a normal person backed confidence.  
  
Who'da thunk that the former would be way more outgoing than the latter, right?  
  
So you'd opened the email and expected a short message opening up a dialogue between you and Harry... and boy howdy, did it open up a dialogue alright. You were just too busy laughing to yourself to really get a grip on just what was in front of you.  
  
 _"Dear Peter Parker,_  
  
 _Greetings and salutations. I'm sure you can tell by the identification of this email but it is I, Harry Osborn, sending you the email that we had previously discussed swapping. Considering that it had been you that had helped me out in that situation in the hall when we had this conversation, I had figured it would only be right and proper to be the one out of the two of us who made the first step in opening this dialogue. Hopefully my initiative does not come off as inappropriate and, if so, then I do sincerely apologize.  
  
I will profess to the fact that I mostly haven't used the email service like this at all. Most of the time whenever it comes down to other people of our grade who I wish to get into contact with or hang out with it was as simple and easy as finding them in school or them finding me. However with the Winter Break fast approaching and with our own acquaintanceship only just beginning, I figured that this avenue of communication would do. It would not be as personal and quick as a phone call as we've only just established our mutual communication while also being convenient for us to talk while school's out, making school meetings, dare I say, a little difficult._  
  
 _So how are you doing this weekend? I imagine that things must not be too different considering that it's been scant days since we talked to each other, with the obvious exception of the both of us being on break and now being free of the examinations, of course. Have you gotten your grades back? I haven't quite gotten mine back but I can't be sure if that's just a me thing or if it takes a while for everyone to get their grades back. My father is, of course, waiting for them and the sooner I can deliver them the better, in any case and in any way it turns out.-"_  
  
Gosh it was all just so fancy! It was appropriately formatted and everything! Dude wasn't kidding when he said that he never emailed someone in a friendly manner like this before, if you were translating his overly formal tone correctly. The dude was talking like he was emailing a professor or a bank or, heck, maybe his own dad or something. It was a bit of a laugh riot if you were being perfectly honest... though, that being the case, there was of course more to your amusement than just the fact that he was going all out on being so formal.  
  
No no. That was sublime on its own. What really put the cherry on top of the cake was the fact that, after his last paragraph-  
  
 _" So what is going on? I realize it's a similar question to what you're doing but I thought it would be polite to ask.  
  
Signed,  
Harry Osborn."_  
  
He had absolutely no idea what to even say, the poor guy. You could imagine him spending several minutes in front of the screen, blinking blearily at it as he tried to think of something to say, anything to say at all, that wouldn't be some moderate chit-chat. You could so immediately and readily imagine it because, by God, you were the one stuck in that position more than a few times in your own life.  
  
It was funny because it was relatable!  
  
Which probably meant that now he was keeping a close eye on his messages to see if you'd answer back just in case he offended you. Probably a good idea to put him out of his misery in that regard. Still, what to respond with...

You smiled and shook your head, cracking your knuckles before immediately setting about typing a response. At first you figured that it might've been fun to match Harry on his formality, going into a long spiel and being highly particular about your language going into this. However in the end you decided not to; for one you didn't think you exactly had it in you to type something like that up without laughing, giving up halfway and then just going back to typing like normal. Secondly, it would've felt like a bit of poor form to keep leading Harry along, especially if these two emails would've ended up being the only exchange between the two of you. Best to actually break him into more common email practice than to yank him around on a chain.  
  
 _"Everything is going fine Harry, thanks for asking. No, I haven't gotten my grades yet either sad to say but I think we can expect them to be retrievable online through the school's website soon enough."_ You started off simply and casually as your fingers continuously tapped against your keyboard at a rather rapid pace; years of playing typing games to help pass time when you really had absolutely friggin' nothing to do paying off... oh and the computer class last year that 'taught you how to type' you guess. _"God knows I'm ready to do a whole bunch of nothing either way now that break is here. Of course I've got family stuff to do; they'll probably have a lot of holiday plans that should be pretty fun to do."_  
  
...  
  
After sending your email you waited for a response from Harry. You received his email a relatively short time ago so you didn't expect it'd take him long to respond to you, especially with how short your email was. Heck, just about as you finished with that little thought you got a response from Harry... judging by the size it was pretty short.  
  
 _"... I'm guessing I kind of overplayed the formal angle for emailing, right?  
  
Signed,  
Harry Osborn."_  
  
You can't help but snort at that question, nodding your head to yourself as you typed an affirmative to Harry in return.  
  
...  
  
 _"Well don't I feel sheepish."_ Came Harry's response, causing you to laugh again as you continued to read his message. _"Well I guess better I learned that now than some other time when I emailed someone. I know that King Kong would've been laughing about this for weeks if he was the one who saw it first."_ Yeah you could totally see that; seemed like a Kong thing to do. _"Anyway, that's cool. I'm guessing your stuff is more local... I mean, not that I'm immediately assuming your folks don't go outside of the city for the holidays I'm just... well, I guess I'm guessing. Guessing is different from assuming, right?"  
  
"Yeah, I'd personally say it is." _You fired back, thinking to yourself before continuing on. _"Either which way your guess or assumption is right; the Parkers usually stay in NYC for anything holiday related. Trips out of the city or even out of state are pretty rare."_ You'd rather not get into it much more than that at the moment; while you didn't expect that Harry would write off monetary concerns you did fear that immediately bringing that kind of stuff up wouldn't exactly send the right signals, especially with your acquaintanceship with Harry still so fresh.  
  
 _"Figured. Still, family plans for the holiday at home at least sound inviting. We usually have a little ritual up here in the... well, uh, hmmm."_  
  
...  
  
 _"Did you just type out you stammering and then send it?"_  
  
...  
  
 _"I'm really bad at this."_ You could just imagine Harry bemoaning this in real life as you saw another email quickly come through. _"Anyway, point is that we have a little home-y ritual ourselves... though it usually comes at the end of a pretty long day. Dad's usually got a whole lot of planned events and meetings for the holidays lined up. Says that it's a good morale booster for the city and helps with Osborn's image as a homegrown, NYC industry."_ Man did his dad business-ify Christmas... slash Hanukkah, slash other winter holidays? With the way the email was going, as you scrolled down, you almost expected Harry to say something like- _"Mom and I usually end up going too. Dad says it puts forward a good image and that it's an important opportunity for me to meet people. It makes the days leading up to Christmas kind of a drag but usually he'll pump the breaks on stuff like that on Christmas Day, or at least he'll mostly pump the breaks."_  
  
...  
  
You know it just kept hitting you over the head like a brick that the life you and Harry lead were probably hugely different and that way different expectations on both of you. Heck, all Aunt May and Uncle Ben expected you to do on Christmas Day was wake up for Christmas Breakfast, sit around the tree opening presents with the family and then enjoy yourself for the day. Being shopped around for little events and stuff sounded like it'd put a real damper on the holiday...  
  
But Harry typed about it like it was perfectly normal...  
  
Which, you know, fair? Because he was like rich and stuff and so this was normal for him... but it really wasn't normal for most people? But who cared because his normal was...  
  
Agh. You were going in circles.

 _"Sounds busy but hey, at least it sounds like you'll have some Christmas stuff to yourself and your folks at least, right?"_ You don't really wait to send this message and get a response before marching on into the next part of the statement. At this point your curiosity was sated and, really, you could only imagine that this might've been bumming Harry out a bit. Heck you know you would've been bummed out if you were spending time talking about how little of the holidays you'd actually have to yourself or your family. It all just sounded so hectic and full of strangers which, even after your boost in confidence, just wasn't you. Heck you could scarcely imagine it being much worse; maybe with the lead up to Christmas so stacked for him then New Years had to be a jam packed schedule too, right?  
  
...  
  
You know what you just said about bumming him out but you couldn't help it. You were a naturally curious person.  
  
 _"I do have to admit, I am curious though. Is the rest of your break like this? Like do you have New Years free or is there events for that too?"_ You sent the message this time and sat back, awaiting Harry's response. You know you didn't want to dwell on this but it was just such a foreign little slice of life to you. It was your chance to learn a little more not just about Harry but about how the other half lived, as it were. You only hoped he wouldn't take it too personally...  
  
...  
  
 _"Oh no way man, New Years is even bigger. Like sure the next few days after Christmas are calm but you know what New Years is like in the Big Apple. It's practically the party of the year and so of course my dad wouldn't have us miss out on it! Man I gotta tell you about some of these other New Years events sometimes. I've met so many different people it's nuts! They're pretty interesting people and the party is usually pretty jamming, even if it's not dad's taste. The Christmas Parties are just drab because there's so many of them and Christmas just isn't really a party type of day, if you ask me. On the other hand, hey, New Years is about hitting the town and partying anyway right? So it matches up a lot better with what I'm looking for in the holiday, at least."_  
  
...  
  
Huh, you didn't know why it only just now occurred to you that Harry, having wanted to be at the center of the social circle at school, would find New York's biggest party of the year to be his element. Nifty.  
  
 _"Speaking of the Christmas stuff though I think I've gotta go. Dad wants me and mom to help rehearse a few things for some guests he'll be entertaining. Talk to you later, Peter."  
  
"Talk to you later Harry."_ No email returned and silence met your inbox as you exited away from the school client and leaned back in your seat. You could scarcely imagine enjoying some huge New Years Party. Then again maybe that was just because that wasn't the life you lead. Then again the life you lead was as a secret Superhero which, in your book, was way cooler than some big party on the biggest night of the year in New York City...  
  
...  
  
Though admittedly that still sounded pretty sweet.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


_"A strong cold front has been percolating up in the Great White North of Canada these past few days that the greater New England area has been keeping an eye on through Doppler Radar. According to meteorologists this cold front is expected to sweet down from the North and bring a pretty strong start to this year's Winter. Action News would advise all residents of New York to start looking into preparations for the coming winter holidays as additional movement of moisture from the Great Lakes region suggests the potential for a very white and very cold New England Winter. We go live to Bill Evans for more information, Bill?"_  
  
You meandered on down the stairs as you yawned, rubbing the sleep from your eyes as one thought was on your mind; breakfast. It was about all the brainpower you had to spare at the moment. After an entire week of Exams, Exams and Practice Exams even your not inconsiderable intelligence was pretty thoroughly wiped out. Heck, even sleeping in another few hours longer than you normally did wasn't getting your brain up to snuff... then again sleeping too much also made people groggy so maybe that had something to do with it?  
  
...  
  
Well even if it did you weren't going to pass up on more sleep after a whole Semester. Sleep was good, and the more you slept in the morning the less naps you took during the day. For now though in order to wake up you knew you needed three things; some sugary cereal, some milk and some bacon. Aunt May and Uncle Ben, the saints, hadn't woken you up this morning so you got to spend all that extra time sleeping. While this might ordinarily mean that you'd miss out on breakfast you knew your Aunt all too well. When you walked into the kitchen and popped open the microwave, boom, there was a plate of extra sausage ready to be heated up and for you to eat. Oh, some scalloped potatoes and eggs too. Nice... though right now your stomach turned a bit at the sight of so much solid food. Cereal first... maybe save the potatoes and eggs for after you've had time to wake up.  
  
Quickly fixing up your breakfast and spooning some of that good old cereal into your gullet you wandered on out into the living room where you heard the television going on about the weather. Uncle Ben was at work making up for some of his vacation days spent down in D.C. so, no surprise, Aunt May was the one sitting on the couch watching the news carefully. Your Aunt nodded along with the report before bringing a pen down to some booklets and checkbooks she had out. Looked like she was doing some calculations.  
  
"Morning Aunt May." You said, Aunt May smiling as she looked up at you; this time she must've heard you coming down the stairs and fixing up breakfast.  
  
"Good morning Peter, hope you slept well. Did you see the leftover breakfast for you in the microwave?" You nodded at that as you took a seat nearby, Aunt May graciously nodding her head in satisfaction as she went back to the various little odds and ends in front of her.  
  
"Whatcha up to Aunt May?" You finally asked after swallowing some cereal, Aunt May taking a quick breath as she flipped a page.  
  
"Oh just looking a few things up for this year Peter and trying to figure out what kind of winter we can expect. You know how it is this time of year." Ah, of course. Aunt May and Uncle Ben must've been trying to game out what exactly they were going to spend on winter preparations this year. Every year as Fall slowly drew to a close and winter threatened itself with its huffing and puffing Aunt May and Uncle Ben looked into a few odds and ends to make sure that they wouldn't be caught with their pants down. Bags of salt were a big ticket item in the name of keeping the driveway clear, extra gas for the snowblower in order to ensure that if a big storm hit then they wouldn't need to walk all the way to a gas station to get some more. Because Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house had been built before the most recent ban on new wood building fireplaces it was not only allowed to operate but, often, helped keep the house just that little bit warmer in the days and weeks where Winter really bit so a firewood stock would need to be kept up.  
  
In the most extreme examples you can remember Uncle Ben buying new snow chains for the cars if it looked like a winter was going to be especially harsh.  
  
"It is getting pretty late into the year huh." You remarked as you spooned more cereal into your mouth. Your brain was still a little on the slow side from waking up but between conversing with your Aunt and the sugar from this cereal you were starting to get into a working state. "So, what's the prognosis for this year Aunt May?" You watched as your Aunt looked down at the notes, furrowing her brow a bit.  
  
"Well... based on last year's income... Ben and I have made a little bit more money this year than previous with the economy doing better... hmmm..." May scratched her chin before looking up at the weather forecast; the huge cold front that had been reported on clearly there. "Last Winter was pretty bad and so we had to spend a little extra money. The report makes me think that this upcoming winter might be roughly as bad, at least. Maybe another six or so inches more snow than we usually get. If we spent around the same amount of money then we'd still end up with quite the little chunk of change put together by the end of the year compared to last year."  
  
"Well hey, that sounds like good news." May nodded her head in agreement, a slight smile on her face.  
  
"Indeed... though if we did scale back just a bit then that situation could improve. That's mostly what I'm arguing with these over. See what expenses can be cut down on for the winter. Though maybe it would still be best to play it safe and just keep up last year's spending..."  
  
Adult stuff. It was weird; you didn't understand it too much, and you knew you didn't, and it sounded really hard and kind of spooky... but it also seemed pretty boring. You were no expert on balancing books but, well, you could try to offer some two cents.

"If you're really not sure, maybe play it safe? From what little I know it doesn't sound like this year is going to be any better than the last." You looked over at the news report and subconsciously rubbed your arms. You weren't exactly a huge meteorologist guy yourself and you didn't dabble too much into the science of weather. You had your preferences and you had your fields of specialty and, well, they just didn't really collide with the weather. So you really didn't check in all that often most times... the only reason you really had been checking in more and more often recently was because... well...  
  
Spider-Man.  
  
Could you expect rain while you went out? High winds which could cause your swings to get wobbly and maybe even snap your web? Would it be super cold and so maybe even putting some socks and stuff over on top of your thermals would be a good idea. Was it cold enough to hail? The snow had already been slowly starting and while it wasn't enough yet to permanently coat New York for more than a couple days it was getting to a breaking point where, eventually, the weather would win out. If there was gonna be active weather when could you expect it and for how long? Maybe if it was only supposed to be spotty you could duck under a roof and wait for the weather to let up?  
  
All of this was pretty important for your work as Spider-Man now so staying up to date on it was basically a necessity. These past few days... well, you'd been noticing on the news what Aunt May had. Apparently this winter was supposed to be another cold one like last winter and, so, it was probably better to play safe than sorry. Aunt May, on the other hand, just nodded a bit as she smiled up at you.  
  
"Of course, that is probably the smartest thing to do. Thanks for the reinforcement dear, it's just what I needed." You smiled at that as Aunt May immediately got to work on her books again. "Do you have any plans for today? God knows that if I were you I'd just be sitting in and resting for the rest of the break after finals." Aunt May laughed at that as you quickly went to retrieve more breakfast.  
  
"I do actually have some plans Aunt May... though I'm not gonna lie, sleep does still sound pretty good." Aunt May shrugged at that as she scratched her head.  
  
"Well I'll leave you to your business one way or another dear. You just enjoy yourself."  
  
Oh you would. You planned on going out and swinging about as Spider-Man, free from the restrictions of school and just ready to have some fun...  
  
...  
  
Though more sleep first wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
...  
  
Oh man, this was just honestly kind of sad. Sad in a funny sort of way of course but, you know, just plain old sad.  
  
Your first post-semester Patrol up in the Bronx and, man, did it feel good. After spending an awful lot of the week just sitting on your butt it was good to stretch out and do some more swinging around on your webs. The thing a couple days ago with Flint and Alex had been fun and all but having to go back to just sitting around, studying and doing tests had been a bit of a mood killer. The fun would come to an end eventually, after all.  
  
Now though? Now you were set for a solid several weeks of being out of school and ready to do whatever came to mind! This time you wanted to go ahead and get up into the Bronx; it didn't feel great to say but the Bronx were a part of the city that was definitely more... well, prone to crime. While you wanted to stay close to Queens sometimes, you were a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and, man, if one neighborhood really needed some loving from the Spider-Man, it was the folks up here in the Bronx. Plus you figured that it'd be pretty easy to just swing around for a while and then have either Ned call in a crime or you just stumble on a crime in progress. It took a little while longer than you expected but, sure enough, you stumbled on a crime in progress...  
  
Well, less a crime in progress and more a crime that hadn't even made enough progress to be considered in progress. So you stopped off on a nearby rooftop to catch your breath, take a small break and eat a sandwich. You expected to just have a few minutes of quiet and maybe texting Ned to yourself while you took your break. Funnily enough you even managed to take your break on top of a restaurant called [Patricia's](https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x89c2f4af5bd9a04f%3A0x8add4cc4e703b232!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNC61t6H8jJ32GtpNUODMXB3_iTTYC5Jypo2Xl7%3Dw284-h160-k-no!5sBronx%20Patricia%27s%20Italian%20Restaurant%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNC61t6H8jJ32GtpNUODMXB3_iTTYC5Jypo2Xl7&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiX6PejkaflAhVkiOAKHa6YAxEQoiowCnoECBAQBg), which seemed to be some kind of small, cozy little Italian restaurant up here in the Bronx. Pretty nice if you did say so yourself; it had looked pretty fancy from the outside when you'd swung your way onto its rooftop. Not too long into your break you saw a few employees leave the restaurant, lock up behind them and then walk off in a group, one of them chatting quickly on their phone. Something must've gone down in the restaurant that needed them to leave early. Who knew, really; that was just kind of life in NYC.  
  
It took another few minutes for the metaphorical clown car to show up. A car pulled right up on Patricia's and screeched to a halt outside, a group of thugs in ski masks quickly exiting the vehicle and making a rush for it. You couldn't quite tell from this high up but you couldn't immediately see guns on them; in fact one of them only had a bat on him. So it was kind of hard to tell how armed they were. You raised an eyebrow at them as one of them charged the door...  
  
Only to immediately bounce off of it, the lock not giving as he fell butt first onto the sidewalk. You winced, barely suppressing a chortle as you quickly ate more of your sandwich, watching as the trio all paced around outside the restaurant and peered in through the glass. Only then did it seem to occur to them that whoever ran this place was either out on break or closed it early.  
  
From there... God. It was just ridiculous. These guys made Alex and Flint look like professionals; they took turns trying to either break down the front door by ramming their shoulders into it or trying to break open the glass, glass that likely had been purchased specially to keep it from being easily broken by a bunch of assholes with a baseball bat if you had to take a random guess. One of the guys started throwing a fit and cussing his other two buddies out while they were busy trying to break into this restaurant.  
  
The entire time you just barely kept yourself from blowing your cover by laughing. You finished your sandwich, put the plastic back in your backpack, set your backpack down on the roof and then started to stretch out. Okay then; good thing the rule only stipulated not swimming for a half hour after eating and not crime fighting. Time to put this farce to an end.

Alright, no pressure at all in this situation. Heck, for a moment you were even half-tempted to try and call the police. These guys seemed like they'd be the perfect speed for the NYPD compared to your own superhero talents. Still, passing off your work onto somebody else hardly felt heroic and, besides, this looked like a lot of fun! So you stood up, cracked your neck a little as you gave a short smile before taking a short leap down toward the ground. With a quick spin you managed to land so that you were facing the backs of the three goons. Despite how quiet you had started off trying to be, well, it was a small wonder that not all three of them heard your feet hit the ground. One turned to face you almost immediately while the other two still seemed utterly ignorant of your presence.  
  
Which, hey, just gave you free reign to quip now that one of them was onto you... then again who were you kidding, even if you somehow managed to avoid getting any of their attention you'd probably start quipping at this point anyway.  
  
"Hey there boys! I'm real sorry that you guys missed out on the lunch rush but, really, they're clearly closed. If you're that hungry you really should've tried the back!" You declare as you fired off two of your Web Shooters, tagging two of the goons right in the back. The two thieves, brought to the situation at hand by your voice and the impact of your Webbing on their back, called out in surprise while the third goon just came right at you, swinging his bat like he was some kind of wannabe pro in order to hit you. A quick duck and you managed to fire off another line of Webbing, this time tagging one foot on each dozy goon before they could get a move in edgewise.  
  
"AH! GET IT OFF ME, GET IT OFF ME!" One of the goons cried out in panic as the other tried, and failed, to pull the Webbing off of him. Before his effort could become too concentrated the shrieking goon immediately bolted, causing your eyes to widen as you watched a veritable Looney Tunes contraption go off. First the runner pulled his friend by the Webbing you'd attached between both of them, the force of his dead sprint causing his buddy to just go jerking through the air and flat onto his ass from the sudden pull against him. Then you tightened your grip and pulled on the Webline attached to the runner's foot, causing him to immediately trip, his back leg high in the air for just a moment, before he face-planted onto the concrete.  
  
"Yeah, you guys definitely missed lunch. You crooks just don't think clearly when you're hungry." You quipped idly as your Spider-Sense helped you dodge another swing from the third goon's baseball bat, turning your head to fix him with an amused look as you tilted your head to the side. "Oof, that's two strikes my man. Get a third and you'll be out." The goon just glared at you, eyes darting about as he tried to look for his next, best move.

  
With that little line delivered you fired off two more strings of Webbing, attempting to tag the guy twice. One missed and ended up hitting the car thanks to his fancy feet but the other one landed neatly on his chest. Nice, that was just what you needed to start rolling him and aaaaaand he just ripped it off. Huh, must've been a particular weak spray that went out. Maybe some air bubbles in the mixture that ended up weakening the overall structure? Then again this wasn't the first time this happened... something for later, in all honesty. The point was this guy ripped off the Webline and then looked to his two compatriots. One of whom was still trying to break free from his other friend and from your Webline's grasp on his foot while the other...  
  
...  
  
"This is why your mother always said she'd never let you near the fucking corded phone, Chuck." One of the goons groaned as they saw Chuck, apparently, tangle himself up in your Webbing in his efforts to escape. You didn't even want to say anything right now; this was just too perfect, too pure a moment. Nothing you could quip could ever make this moment funnier than it already was; two Weblines, that was it. This genius managed to turn that into some kind of makeshift ball of chaos that ended up with him being badly tangled up. That was just the best possible punchline for this moment. The third goon, seeming to realize much the same as you did, immediately moved to chuck his bat at your head.  
  
"Bata bata bata bata... SWING!" You ducked as the baseball bat soared over your head, leaving you to just grin at the guy through your mask as you chuckled. "Well somebody's not making the MLB in the Spring, I'll tell you what." You glib comments just seemed to make this guy even angrier but, well, if it did then it wasn't gonna stop him from cheesing it; he pulled out the car keys and ended up making a break for the car door, intending to leave you and his friends behind.  
  
"Hey now, there's no need to hurry!" You called out as you immediately tagged him with another Webline again, this one far more secure as you slowly reeled him in away from the open door he was desperately trying to reach for. His hands eventually turned back to trying to rip apart the Webline you attached but this one seemed far more stable and far stronger as before he could even get a good attempt in you struck him with another Webline. Slowly but surely you ended up spraying all three of these clowns down, tagging them with various ends of the Weblines your Shooters could produce, emptying out the cartridges you'd been using in order to fully entangle these guys in a big old knot...  
  
Ah.  
  
Another day another job well done, if you did say so yourself. You dusted off your hands as you took in your work. Sure the shop's windows and door were a little banged up but, hey, this looked like a nice, fine package to leave behind if you did say so yourself.

"Ah... you know, this looks like a good day of work for your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Savior of Tips and Defender Against Bad Yelp Reviews!" You declared with a flourish. Looking at these goons you actually figured that you could leave them in this mess in front of the store and you'd be pretty good to go. Most people watching were already taking photos on their phone or calling the police, after all these goofs had done this while there was still daylight and pretty much in the middle of the street. So just swinging on off and letting the police arrive on their own time was actually an option this time around!  
  
"You boys get cozy! Not too cozy though, some men in blue should be around to take you guys off to your new home for the next couple months." With that you fired off a Webline and immediately pulled yourself into the air, swinging off as the crooks cursed and cussed at you. You sighed; a good start to the day. Now all you had to do was keep up with the patrolling and everything would be golden. After a few moments you moved to retrieve your backpack, ready to-  
  
[ ***Yodeling***](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWao9izTMTw)  
  
Oh hey, Ned was calling. You actually boggled your eyes a bit at that; was he calling in some new crime already? Wow, today was gonna be busy if he was. He fished your phone out of your backpack and held it up to your ear. "Talk to me, what have you got for-  
  
 _"Good news, I just finished updating the map from your patrol a couple nights ago dude!"_  
  
...  
  
"A couple nights ago?" You asked, tilting your head to the side as you could just imagine Ned nodding.  
  
 _"Yeah. Sorry, I've been real busy catching up with a lot of my other stuff during finals but I just got done, dude!"_  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Dude that's great and all but I just got done busting another crime."  
  
...  
  
 _"Oh man."_ You laughed out loud at the defeated tone in Ned's voice, causing you to shake your head.  
  
"I warned you about studying ahead of time dude, I warned you."  
  
 _"Ugh... I hate catch ups."_  
  
Ah man.  
  
This was a good day.


	39. The New Costume

Alright, it was time. Time to get to work, time to finally start putting the finishing touches on your costume's design. Although, you quickly corrected yourself with an excited smile, not your 'costume' as it was, the hodgepodge of clothes and stenciled designs that came together to form your current Superhero disguise. No, your new costume, your second costume... and, if you were being frank, probably your first real costume. Yeah, the urban ninja look had come a long, long way and had helped you establish yourself as the Spider-Man. People knew you by this now... but that was both a good and a bad thing in your mind. They knew about you...

And they knew you dressed like a bum with some paint on him. Your current costume really didn't do much for aesthetic and it looked pretty grungy, even when cleaned. So this new costume wouldn't just make you look more like, well, a Superhero, it'd be your first step into really defining the Spider-Man's identity yourself. No more mish-mash of clothes to come together to form a ramshackle costume, now you were designing every last detail of how the Spider-Man would present himself to NYC. If you did say so yourself you loved the idea for the design you came up with. Something sleek and form fitting to help make swinging around the city easier without catching so much wind or leaving so much to grab. It was also something your thermals could fit under neatly so you wouldn't even get that cold during the winter.

That all came with the secondary benefit of being able to keep it hidden under your clothes; the days of laboriously having to switch between civvies and your costume were over. Now you could just slip your costume underneath your clothes and then quickly change out, meaning your response time could be a lot faster. On top of all of that, with a good bit of work, this costume would be way easier to fit new designs and stuff into. After all, it wasn't just a pair of normal clothes that you'd have to work with sewing; you were already putting little pockets and stuff here and there for future ideas.

For now though it all came down to the weave of the costume itself, the design you wanted...

And, if you were frank, you liked the design you put down, the framework you'd established for your eventual work on the costume itself. It was all coming together very nicely and your list of materials was looking just fine... though there was one area you were paying special attention to.

Your eyes had previously been hidden from being exposed before by goggles you'd installed into your mask and, with that being added in, it had made it a bit hard for people to understand what you were feeling. You'd really had to emote or give a more solid vocal performance of your feelings to help communicate with some folks. It didn't always hurt as most people could at least see somewhat vaguely through your goggles but... well, with the new costume you didn't really have goggles in mind. You didn't want eyes bugging out of the costume; it'd kill the look somewhat. So you needed to come up with something alternative going forward... and maybe make a sacrifice here or there depending on how things went.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"Ned, are you sure about this man? I mean, I'm working on the new costume and it's so close to being done..."  
  
"Dude, it's because you're doing stuff with the costume still that we're out here. School's just got done, we should relax a little bit! You can't say we haven't earned it, right? You put away a supervillain and a good number of crooks and I've been working my but off on the security stuff for Spidey. That and Finals and I'd say we've definitely earned a break. Especially with you still going out and doing the Spider-Man stuff so frequently. Come on, it'll be great."  
  
"I mean..."  
  
Well, Ned wasn't wrong. You had been tearing butt through Spider-Man stuff even while in the midst of Finals. You'd put Hobbie away and before that you'd nabbed Vulture before he could seriously hurt or kill someone and a lot of criminals were in jail and awaiting trial now that might not have otherwise been without your help. Plus grades were expected to come out sometime this week and, hey, you knew you were expecting some pretty solid grades for all your hard work done. Yet despite doing all of this... well, yeah, Ned was right; you were still doing the Spider-Man thing pretty frequently, even if it was something as simple as putting your costume together. You really did earn a bit of rest and relaxation.  
  
Still though...  
  
"Do we have to go and meet with these other people to do it though? Maybe we can watch anime instead or just play games on the computers. MMOs are good for roleplaying if that's what you're feeling and-"  
  
"Dude, the only MMO worth playing at this point is WoW... and even if your computer could run WoW which, let's be honest-" It probably couldn't with its ancient graphics card, you nodded in agreement with him, "-everyone's been talking nonstop about how BFA sucks. Besides, aside from Golden Wind, what anime really has come out this season that you're really keen on."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Yeah, Fall 2018 was proving to be a pretty weak Season of Anime. Winter 2019 wasn't looking much better.  
  
"Yeaaaah. Okay, point. Still though, why... you know, tabletop gaming?"  
  
When you grew up a nerd you were generally at the bottom of the totem pole when it came to social circles. What a lot of people outside of nerd culture didn't understand, however, was that even among nerds there was a sort of social hierarchy for nerds. While a lot of aspects of nerd-dom had gotten a lot more accepted and mainstream over the years... there was still stuff like tabletop gaming and the folks who played it. Popularly considered to be the nerds that are to nerds what nerds are to normal people. You didn't judge, everyone had their hobbies and goodness knows that you'd learned that your own hobby wasn't exactly a cultural mainstay thanks to your talk with Gwen Stacy on the subject a while back but, man, it still kind of shook you up...  
  
...  
  
Though you weren't gonna lie; part of your hesitance was just the onus of meeting potentially new people. Despite how much more open you were, it was still hard to go into a situation where you were going to knowingly meet new people with much enthusiasm.  
  
"Relax, it'll be cool. I've been chatting with these guys for a while and they seem cool and it all sounds pretty fun! If we don't like it then we never have to go again! So there's no pressure!" Yeah, no pressure, sure. "Anyway, you finish up your character sheet or..." Oh, yeah, you had. You'd looked up the system and the background they wanted to set the 'campaign' in and tried to come up with a handful of designs you thought you'd like. In the end you came forward with:

**Aethan Urquhart - A scion of a small business family and a member of the** [ **Bostonian Elite** ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/COOLIDGE%2C_JOHN_LCCN2016860932.jpg/220px-COOLIDGE%2C_JOHN_LCCN2016860932.jpg) **, Aethan soons finds the family fortune he's rebuilt over years and years of effort being wiped out by the Great Depression. A mysterious letter, however, from the Alaskan estate that Aethan's grandfather had worked hard to build up has come; the long-rumored gold that his grandfather had spent years, his life and a better part of the Urquhart fortune chasing has, seemingly, emerged. An odd sort of pale gold... but it could be enough to save Aethan's family from the poor house.**

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

_"Alright so, here's the situation. When the letters from Wallah, Alaska, the little frontier settlement your grandfather set up in his hunt for gold, originally arrive in March it's before the worst of the Great Depression. Your family's wealth is in... what would you say? Textile manufacturing, perhaps?"  
  
"Yeah, sure, that sounds good."  
  
"Alright then, textile manufacturing. Well, back in March before Black Tuesday the letters probably seem pretty worthless to you; after all, your grandfather essentially died out in that wilderness searching for gold that never materialized. A flute and a necklace doesn't seem like much reason to change your mind, especially after you've spent so much time trying to rebuild the family fortune."  
  
"That sounds about like what I imagined, yeah?"  
  
"Right then; so the Great Depression does eventually hit and these letters suddenly take on some greater importance... let's see. Family?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Family, does Aethan have family?"  
  
"Oh uh... yeah. I guess his dad would be dead which is why he's the head of the household and family now but... uh... hmmm..."  
  
"We'll roll for the rest, how does that sound?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah that sounds good... uh,_ sorry but... shouldn't this be with some of the others?"  
  
The man you'd come to know as your dungeon master, or game master as he preferred considering the setting and rules he was using, shrugged his shoulders somewhat. A thirty-something of a rather thin frame with a pair of glasses not too dissimilar to your own looked out into the other room where some other players in this game were talking with Ned. When you and Ned had arrived you both were surprised to find that you both were definitely the youngest guys here. Though the surprise seemed mostly on your end; the older members of this group, the GM and his friend, a woman around his age to your surprise, were pretty much nonplussed by your presence and welcomed you into the group's little meeting at a nearby library quickly enough. Ned's contact into this group, who turned out to be another fella a handful of years older than either of you in his early twenties.  
  
While the awkwardness of converting an online familiarity into a real life one had been, as usual, shaky Ned's online contact, a fella you'd come to know as Bill Myers, a rather calm and collected young man with a decidedly frenetic sense of humor despite his usual demeanor. Him, Erena Westborough and Ned had all been talking among themselves, having made characters more local to the little frontier city of Wallah, Alaska that the GM had set up as the main setting for this little adventure he put together.  
  
"Well they're setting up their characters together; Erena and Bill should be able to help your friend along. Seeing as how you're the major person coming into this setting as an outside I thought a little time together setting up your situation with a bit of roleplay would be good to help flesh out Aethan."  
  
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Sorry, not exactly sure how a lot of this works." You really were being kind of thrown to the wolves here; it was clear that the older members of this group had a lot of experience with tabletop gaming and that the GM in specific had been at this for a while; what little you got out of him even said that his father had been the one to introduce the hobby to him when he was a kid.  
  
"Hey, it's cool. Anyway, let's _get back to it then."  
  
***Rolls Rolls Rolls...***  
  
"Alright; so you have a brother and a sister. Avery is your younger brother; while you were fighting in WWI as a _[_doughboy_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughboy) _he was back at the family estate. Your mother, Catherine, always had a soft spot for Avery, like most parents do their youngest. Avery's... well, he's a social butterfly and a spendthrift. He tries to be good at the family business of, well, business by making investments in friends he meats among the_[ _Bostonian Brahmin_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Brahmin) _but these investments usually tank and he usually ends up crawling back to the estate asking for a check. Your mother usually convinces you to write one for him and Avery goes on his way. Now while Avery isn't exactly money smart he is people smart; he's easily the socialite of your family and by the person with the most connections. Even when you can't trust his business dealings you can trust him to be a glib, charismatic face for the family when it comes to making people feel warm and welcomed before you go in for your business. Meanwhile Beatrice, your older sister, has been kind of distant from the family after marrying into another New England family. You exchange letters from time to time but even these have dropped off after a point and time.  
  
"Catherine, out of your mother and father, was a woman with a good head on her shoulder for business, to the point where your father often felt belittled by her presence. Especially when she'd go behind his back to make business arrangements and deals without his knowing. As you can imagine the Bostonian Elite didn't exactly much of your father because of this; after all, what kind of man can't keep his household in enough order to listen to and respect him? Still, despite this, Catherine's investments more often than not came through and in a much bigger way than your father's far more safe investments. She's smart and more than a little manipulative but she acts in the best interests of the Urquhart when she can. Still, despite the success of her own investments, your father's investments were arguably very much needed. After your grandfather nearly left the family to ruin following his gold hunt in Wallah, safe, steady growth to recover was probably the best order of the day, and Catherine did go behind your father's back and take some pretty big risks. At least, this is what your skills in these areas might be inclined to tell you."  
  
"Right, but now after all that steady investment while he was alive I've been picking up the pace of investment to try and really grow the family wealth again after the War and such."  
  
"Right, right, and we'll say you've been pretty successful with that because given the Depression hit you won't get too much advantage out of it in this campaign, save for the fact that Wallah is essentially going to be yours when you head out there. Speaking of, seeing as how you'll be heading out to Alaska you can't very well helm the Urquhart Estate or Business Interests through these turbulent times like you have been. You haven't stopped the bleeding but you've stymied it... which means you'll need to hand the reins off to someone else."  
  
"Alright so... what are my options."  
  
"I dunno, you tell me."_  
  
... Oh right, roleplaying.

 _"Alright, so you call Avery to your office in order to lay down the law to him; you're leaving him in charge of the Urquhart Estate while you go off to Wallah, Alaska in order to follow the lead on the gold. He's to try and keep things running, selling factories or other interests as needed to make payments when necessary, but otherwise he's just to just continue staunching the bleeding. Avery, naturally, takes the news that your family is essentially broke poorly; he goes off to find something in the house and comes back with a bottle of wine, dated 1898."  
  
"Think it's safe to say that's my birth year, given all the other history we've set up."  
  
"Yeah that sounds like a plan. Avery comes back in and sighs as he looks over the bottle; 'Wondered if there was still some of this lying around', he says as he pops the cork, '1898.'"  
  
"'A good year, especially for me' I'll comment idly."  
  
"Avery gives a nervous chuckle at that as he pours out a drink into two glasses, 'If you're hunting for El Dorado then, well, 1898 seems like a good vintage,' Avery will raise his glass slightly as he sighs, tired. 'I'll do whatever you need me to do, Aethan. Cheers.'"  
  
"I'll roll my eyes and clink the glass with him."  
  
"Alright then; you set up the business and get ready to depart. Your mother, Catherine, when she eventually learns of all this thanks to Avery will be a bit weary of the idea of you running off to Alaska but won't try to stop you. Given everything going on she doesn't exactly see a winning play in staying in Boston either. Anything you'd like to set up before we head back in to join everyone else?"  
  
"... A will seems like a smart idea, right?"  
  
"Yeah totally; a little will to set up how the Estate will be divvied up if you meet your untimely demise. Probably a smart move all things considered. Alright then, let's move into the _next room then, Peter."  
  
You heaved a sigh as you stood up after roleplaying with the GM for the better part of a half hour, rubbing at your backside a bit to get some feeling back in. You both quickly depart for the common room, the GM taking his notes with him and you bringing along Aethan's character sheet as you rejoin the rest of the party.  
  
"'I'mma tellin' you like I've told ya'll all along! There is gold in them damn hills and Mr. Urquhart was right all along! Ya'll said I was crazy for believing him or digging around all these, but who's the one laughin' now that it's old Timmy J. Baranov with gold!'" You flinched a bit at the [accent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmzlRZ3qgcc) that Erena was putting on, Ned and the other guy barely holding themselves together as the GM's friend was putting on a bit of a display for the group. Before the show could go on any further your entrance, alongside the GM's, put an end to the business as he quickly took his spot at the head of the table while you took your spot by Ned.  
  
"Alright, I think I've just about touched on everyone now so I think the session can properly begin." The GM clasped his hands together, Erena and Bill each nodding in agreement as you and Ned, after a moment to shrug at each other, gave your assent to the situation as well. "Alright then... _so as the days go on while Aethan is traveling to Wallah, the rest of you are all continuing your work in your respective jobs. Erena's character, Timmy J. Baranov, after having found the golden artifacts is, of course, continuing his search through the foothills and slopes of Wallah. Frostbitten toes or no he's going to find more gold and, more important, the source of these golden artifacts and finally make his fortune. Ned your character, Wilton William Wilson, continues running his general store and selling off what products he can import and, more importantly, what he can hunt from the woods. Finally Bill's character, one Amaqjuaq of one of the native Kenai Peninsular tribes who continues to act as a guide for folks like Baranov and Wilson in their forays into the wilderness. Time passes and soon enough Doctor Robert B. Gatshall, the man running Wallah after Priam Urquhart's death, informs you all that the inheritor of Priam's estate, one Aethan Urquhart, will be arriving by sled in order to assume Priam's old position in the city."  
  
"'Yahoo'!"_ You and Ned jumped a bit as Erena suddenly called up, the young woman grinning ear to ear as she did so. _"'You hear that? A chosen boy of the Urquhart family's finally coming to do right by his old man! It's gonna be like the good old days with ol' Priam and we'll finally find the source of all of this gold!'"  
  
"... Uh... I-I mean, well, Wilton just kind of shrugs at the news but I guess he's interested. Presumably Wallah was more profitable and had more business running through it back when this Priam guy was pumping money into it, so stands to reason that if an Urquhart is coming back that his own business will improve... I guess?"  
  
"Same thought for Amaqiuaq, who just kind of shrugs off the arrival of another one of the Americans. If it means he'll be guiding more groups then, hey, all the better."  
  
"Alright; let's see here... are the plans you guys gave me at the start of this still your plans considering this information."  
  
"Yep, gonna go out in the woods and look for more gold!"  
  
"I'm gonna guide him along so he doesn't get killed."  
  
"I guess I'll stay in town so I can introduce myself to the new boss, see if I can work him over to make him more favorable to my business ventures." _You glanced over at Ned as he said that so plainly, your best friend looking at you and giving you a shrug. "What?"  
  
...  
  
Well, it was in character you guessed.  
  
_"Alright then, let me just see here..." ***Rolls rolls rolls*** "Alright, Bill and Erena we'll roll you guys a little mini-encounter after I get done with Peter here. Peter, mind giving me a minute while I do a little something for Ned?"  
  
"Oh_ uh sure, no problem."  
  
It didn't take long at all; while it wasn't a minute sometime around ten minutes later Ned walked out from the side room that the GM had been using and waved you in. You nodded and quickly ran in after him, Ned giving you a slap on the shoulder as he grinned; he must've gotten some good news. As you walked in the GM waved to the seat you'd previously used. You quickly slid into the seat and the GM took a small breath.  
  
_"Alright; Wallah's name has a bit of meaning; the native word meaning 'to not thaw', so when you eventually arrive in Anchorage, Alaska you begin your trek to Wallah. It involved, for as far as you can go considering the weather, some cars and carriages and, eventually, you'll find yourself riding along in a dogsled to Wallah. Upon your arrival in Anchorage you'll receive a series of packages from Heath & Downing, the legal team that's been working with Doctor Gatshall in running Wallah on behalf of your family. In Anchorage they give you a wooden crate that's labeled as the 'Urquhart Dossier'. When you crack it open in Anchorage you'll see that inside are several leather books and ledgers. Their stuffed with letters and receipts, mostly from the late 1800s when Priam was running the show but a good handful are very recent as well.  
  
"They're mostly reams of accounts, bills of purchase, virtually every update from Gatshall since the 19th Century and, seemingly without respect to importance, all of Priam's paperwork on Wallah."  
  
"Wow, that's a lot of stuff."  
  
"It is a law firm and they were legally obligated, so long as your family owns the land, to keep an account of these things." You nodded understandingly at that. "At any rate you're moved out of Anchorage quickly to avoid the paths getting a bit too treacherous for a trip to Wallah to be feasible in the near future so you'll have the option of looking over these once you arrive in Wallah. After an indeterminable amount of time thanks to the weather you arrive in Wallah. As your luggage is being unloaded a messenger runs off into the little township and, soon after, returns with a rather old gentleman of a rustic but formal attire.  
  
"'Ah, well I do say, you must be Aethan Urquhart, the old boy's grandson. That is you, correct? I'll admit, I can't pick out your features to well in the midst of all this snow, my good man.'"  
  
"Uh... 'Yes, yes indeed. I am Aethan Urquhart. You must be Doctor Robert Gatshall, then?'"  
  
"'Oh good, good, and indeed I am. Welcome to your grandfather's project, my good man. Welcome to Wallah!' With that Gatshall does his best to make a sweeping hand gesture to the township itself. The snow obscures a lot of it but from what you can tell it's actually a little bigger than you thought it was. A lumber yard makes up one of the central, visible structures on the furthest part of your vision in town with several log tracks making their way back towards the little area where your sledding team has made to unload, making you realize the structure beside you is indeed a warehouse. A large building makes up the center of town and several structures, most of the smaller ones being houses by the looks of it, dotting the de-forested hillside that is now Wallah, Alaska.  
  
"'I have to imagine you're possessed of a powerful thirst after your long trip from Anchorage. Come, come. I'll show you to your room, Priam's old room, in the town hall!' While doing this, what business do you think you'd like to attend to now that you've arrived?"  
  
Hmmm, you had a few things in mind._

 _"Okay then, let's combine those two into one since you'll be looking over both. So Aethan sits down at his desk and starts shuffling through the papers. It's maddening, like someone took all their business transactions, important and trivial, and just threw them in a box. There's notation in the ledgers that you don't understand. Priam's shorthand presumably, intended to save important space and time but here the random numbers and letters, drawn in circles or squares or triangles, only serve to confound an already untidy mess of accounts. At the same time you sift through Dr. Gatshall's reports; they're perfunctory and follow a formula.  
  
"They list in small order monthly fees, bills to be paid, and typically a one or two sentence summary of his actions that month. Often, the fees well exceed the profits, what little there are from lumber, furs, and miscellaneous labor. It starts small, as you work your way back from the current year, but the numbers grow sharply the further back you go and you find that they're at their smallest in 1911. The year Priam died. Fees are slashed and Dr. Gatshall's reports become longer and more detailed for a few years, before tapering back into brief tallies. In the years before 1911, however, the fees are staggeringly huge. They're nearly impossible to collate, as there's no running receipt for many so much as an amalgam of transactions and credits.  
  
"The further back you go, the larger the expenses seem to be -- and the less comprehensible the accounts appear. In 1898, as well as Aethan can make out, thousands of dollars a month were being spent. He'd heard the grim stories from his father about Priam's sunk expenditures -- but here, even partially revealed, the costs are astronomical and even higher than you believed. From 1897 to 1900 alone you believe Priam spent more than the Urquharts have made in the past 20 years and that's judging off of incomplete and difficult to parse records as you have them here."  
  
"Holy crap, Priam was loaded."  
  
"Yeah he was. Roll against Perception."_  
  
"Okay uh... 9, Success by 4?"  
  
"5. Alright then. _At no point was Wallah profitable, and as the years marched on it became less profitable, but Priam also spent more money. He spent enough to buy a vast tract of land, populated it with virtually an entire town, and had that town on his payroll. Labor, supplies a you see at one point he even paid a company to investigate where to put a train leading to and from Wallah. Then you start to notice discrepancies. At first, strange little price spikes but later either incomplete or seemingly wrong tallies. 1896 he buys the land, 1897 he starts the project in earnest, 1898 it's well in swing, 1899 the wages of 100 laborers quadruples and this stays true for three years.  
  
"After that their wages drop back down. On its own it strikes you as curious but part of an overall spiraling of costs. A lesser man would leave it at that and move on. However, and refresh my memory, what level of Advantage do you have in Photographic Memory?"  
  
"Just Photographic."  
  
"Right then, but with your prodigious memory you remember several small stubs recording doctor's bills. You work back through and find them. A town like Wallah was not a safe place, you imagine. There are all the trails of doctor fees, filtered through and paid to or by your grandfather. However in February of 1899 you gather up a handful of stubs. Alone, they're unremarkable, but together you count at least 50+ doctor stubs for that February right after that the worker wages quadruple."  
  
"So... something happened? Some kind of accident or event that hurt a lot of the workforce and so... Priam would've hiked their wages in order to keep the rest on board? Is that right?"  
  
"Well I can't tell you if that's right, but that's a pretty logical conclusion. The notes are truly monstrous so the time you set aside for yourself to study them ends about here. After that the Doctor knocks on your door and tells you that the town's been informed of your arrival. You want to go ahead and introduce yourself, like you said?"  
  
"Yeah, I can't get through all of this in one day, I'm guessing."  
  
"Indeed. Alright... _Hey Ned! Come on back in!" You flinch at that as the atmosphere is momentarily broken again, Ned striding on into the living area with a grin as he waved at you and takes a seat.  
  
"Alright, time to start schmoozing the new boss." Ned said with a bit of barely concealed giddiness as you just shook your head at your friend, the GM coughing into his fist as the both of you nodded.  
  
_"Alright then; the trip through Wallah goes pretty standard. While a few people are out of the town at the moment doing work hunting for the newly rumored gold or just making their livings, you're introduced to the folks in town who're. There's of course the good Doctor himself, Gatschell, though he'll say to not let the title fool you; his doctorate from Stanford is in Engineering with a minor in Geological Studies, specializing in Mining Engineering. He was brought on board by Priam should the gold ever be found to set up the operations of the mine. The actual town doctor is actually a family practice; Mr. and Mrs. Ruric, a Russian-American descended couple, who run a practice tending after the various lumberjacks and hunters operating here in Wallah. You meet a handful of citizens that I'll give more detailed descriptions of when they become more relevant-"  
  
"Harsh."  
  
"Hey not every NPC is equal."_ You couldn't help but chuckle at that. _"And the Postmaster of Wallah, presumably the guy who's been handling the messages between Wallah itself and the law firm for part of the journey, is the man with the dog sled team who brought you on up here; a young man named Lucas who, apparently, was born here in Wallah. A true local. Finally you're brought to the general store and, Ned, do your thing."  
  
"Alright, alright. Well Pete, soon as good old Aethan steps in he notices an earthy mixtures of aromas hit. Something's cooking in the back even as various bits of produce, fish and meat are laid out on ice in front. Furs are hanging up on the walls, skinned and made ready for purchase by needs members of the community and walls of various products from the vitally necessary like tar and prices of lumber purchases from the yard to herbs and spices brought up from California way. As the bell above the door rings you see a large, if corpulent, man step out from the back, an apron stretched out across his gut as he fiddles with his mustache."  
  
"... Handlebar?"  
  
"You know it! '_[ _Well now_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQLJKuIQ6-0) _! What do we have stridin' on here into my shop!"_ You can't help yourself as you immediately guffaw at the voice Ned is putting on; your best friend sounding like a New Yorker fresh out of a radio commercial from the 1920s rather than the friend and confidant you'd known for so long. _"'Fine young man in Bostonian wears with a fine main of hair and the disposition of a truly gifted man of the market! I dare say, you must be Aethan Urquhart, the chum come to help us reap Wallah's wealth in gold!' Wilton rubs his hands together at this; opportunity coming a knocking to his fine store that he wasn't just about to let slip by."  
  
"... Uh, 'Yes, I am he, Aethan Urquhart. I do believe, according to the good Doctor, that you would be Wilton Wilson, correct?'"  
  
"'Ah I see, the good doctor here has made some small manner of introductions!'"  
  
"'A goon one, I promise Wilton.'"  
  
"'Uh, yeah. The good Doctor's told me about your shop and its place here in Wallah. I've been told you're the man to go to should I require anything.'"  
  
"Oh ho, he did! Good man, Doctor, good man! Well he's quite right Mr. Urquhart, I'm the man to come to if you have a need for anything while you're here in Wallah! Anything any man, woman or child could need I've got here in my shop and if I don't, well then, I can bring it on in! Just say the word and, of course, pay the piper and it'll be done!'"  
  
"Alright, you two go ahead and have a little chat; fill me in about it when we all fit back in together, I gotta start rolling the others' encounter."_ You and Ned nodded as you both got to work; you didn't both strictly roleplay during this part while the GM stepped out but went ahead and shared information on your two characters. You tried to keep it somewhat in character by being somewhat gun shy whenever Ned fished for information that was clearly for Wilton's business interests but, in time, you learned that Wilton moved to Wallah back during the latter part of Priam's time here in Wallah from New York City. Priam had been trying to attract business interests late into his life to come to Wallah and Wilton had been one of the few who took the old man up. He'd transformed the wages and fees paid by Priam into what essentially became a small local monopoly, his general store effectively controlling the flow of goods into and out of not only Wallah but the general region. Which, well, was pretty impressive and gave you an idea as to what Ned himself might've been aiming for.  
  
It took a while but you and Ned were called back into the living room, the GM rubbing his chin as he packed up some stuff. "Encounter went a little... fucky. I'll need some time to design a little something. Wasn't expecting to have to break out a more full encounter this early but, hey, that's the way it goes sometime." You and Ned both blinked at that as the GM looked over at you. "After a while the Doctor will inform you, Aethan, and word will get to Wilton that Tim and Amaqjuaq haven't come back yet. He starts to get worried and organize a group to go out and look for them..."  
  
...  
  
Oh! A hook!  
  
"Well of course Aethan will put himself forward; WW1 soldier and what not."  
  
"And Wilton fancies himself something of a hunter so of course he'll volunteer."  
  
"Thought so." The GM said with a nod. "For now I gotta do some more work and also, get to work. Thanks for coming by you guys. If you enjoyed yourselves you're free to come by again when we got another session." Ned stroked his chin, clearly in thought about how this had all gone. He looked over at you for some guidance, while you yourself thought about how you felt about all this.

As you and Ned departed from the house your friend heaved a huge sigh, a grin on his face. "Well, it wasn't everything I expected but then, I dunno exactly what I was expecting. Thanks for coming in any case; it wouldn't have been as cool to come out here and try this out if you hadn't come along Peter." You smiled at that; regardless of how this had gone, regardless of how you felt, it had been pretty nice to spend an evening with Ned just trying something new out, especially since he'd taken the lead on this one.  
  
"Hey it's no problem man, I wouldn't leave you hanging in a situation like this." You might've been getting into so many new things and meeting new people but Ned was still your best friend and your sole confidante. You two would have each other's back in everything... from Superhero stuff to, well, tabletop stuff. Ned slapped you across the back, a move that barely made you even stumble, as you both chatted on about various things, from this evening's game play to news coming down the pipe about the latest game or anime.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


You quickly ran down the stairs with your backpack in tow; in one of your pockets was a long list of supplies you'd be needing to actually make your Spider-Man costume later on this evening. The backpack, naturally, was for quickly stowing away the stuff you bought so it wouldn't be hanging out in the open. While buying stuff from many different shops would help reduce how suspicious it'd be of you to buy all the supplies from your costume from one, rocking around with bags full of supplies all day would still be a pretty dead giveaway that you were making something pretty big. So a backpack to help stow the stuff while you shopped around town would be the other half the equation you'd need in order to help reduce any and all suspicion of your activities, or at least, you hoped that would be the case.  
  
Once you had everything you needed it'd be as quick as one trip home before you could start sewing up your costume. As you cleared the stairs, however, you took notice of someone sitting on the big living room couch as you passed on through the gap between the stairs and the living room; Uncle Ben. Once you hit the bottom you peered around the corner of the entrance to the kitchen to look into the room; your eyes hadn't deceived you, Uncle Ben was indeed sitting there on the couch, the older man looking through various photos as he did so. With a quick glance you could pretty easily tell they were from his Washington Trip; the ones on the table featured various landmarks and buildings like the Washington and Lincoln Memorials, the Jefferson Monument, the White House, the Capitol Building. However, in his hands were photos from what looked to be the room they'd held the ex-President's service in; indeed, there was a very well framed shot in Ben's hands of the casket itself.  
  
Unlike Aunt May who always seemed to be so distracted and so unaware Ben arched his head up your way almost the second you peeked around the corner, the older man's eyes shining a bit as he gave you a smile.  
  
"Well hey there kiddo; looks like you're getting ready to head out. Don't mind me, just looking through a few of these pictures here. Be sure to get back at a decent hour if you're heading over to Ned's, alright?" You nodded at that; that wouldn't be a problem at all, it was basically just an extended shopping trip. Having been given the okay to leave you were almost ready to immediately make for the door and go... and yet instead you walked into the living room. The trip to D.C. had kept Ben out of the house for a bit and you hadn't really sat down and had a chat with your Uncle ever since he came back. This felt like a good time to correct that score.  
  
"Looking through some of the pictures you took on your trip, Uncle Ben?" You saw him nod at that, scooting over to give you some more space on the couch as you swung your backpack down to the side before taking a seat.  
  
"Yeah, in a sense I suppose. Want to see if these all came out alright and make sure I didn't futz any of it up." You nodded at that as Ben absentmindedly wagged the photo in his hand a bit. "More than that though I guess I've been taking some time to think about all of this a little bit more. This whole thing ended up... I dunno. I didn't figure that it'd all have been as affecting as it was. I figured the funeral might get a bit emotional with his whole family and everyone being there, but you know I've been to my fair share of funerals and with people I more directly knew. It wasn't that big a deal to me in the moment but... I dunno. Now that this old head of mine's sitting down to think... heh, I guess it all ended up being a bit much for me after all. Probably part of why I ended up hitting the bar with the others and those young'uns when I came back. A little time to just ease off." You nodded at that, at least somewhat getting that, as you tilted your head.  
  
"Well he was the guy who sent you off to fight and then brought you all back, right? I guess that wouldn't be much of a surprise in that situation." You said as Ben nodded, though with a slightly thoughtful frown.  
  
"I thought that was just it too but... I dunno. There's this real sinkin' feeling in my gut that goes deeper than that. Been thinking about a lot of things growing up... and... I dunno. I guess ol' Bush Sr. here ended up meaning a bit more to me than I thought... which is only a little ironic." He turned to you with a wink. "Given how frustrated and angry I was about him and other folks like him when I was a kid full of piss and vinegar."  
  
"Really?" You were curious now, putting your hands in your lap. "I find that hard to believe. Did they do something to you?"  
  
"In a broad speaking, yeah. A ridiculous way of thinking about it looking back but... well..." Uncle Ben chuckled as he gave you a grin. "Think of it like this... what is it that you and kids your age are referring to doddering old timers like me as? Boomers... or Zoomers or whatever it is?" Oof, Uncle Ben was clearly not up to date on the lingo.

"Yeah we refer to you guys as Boomers because of the whole baby boom thing." You said with a slight grin as Uncle Ben scratched his chin.  
  
"Yeah that's it. Didn't really get stuck with that name until after the collapse of the Soviet Union if I remember." Uncle Ben said with a hum as you just smiled at him.  
  
"I think I know what you're getting at though... I'm guessing you guys had a little meme beef with your parents and grandparents like we have with Boomers, right?" While some people did take the meme seriously, it was generally meant to be a joke; the 'Boomers have caused all the troubles' thing being more a witty retort to the tendency of some folks to call Millennial or people of your generation lazy or entitled. It was all in good fun but you could see a similar dynamic playing out for Uncle Ben's generation...  
  
Though Uncle Ben laughed, a bit of a nervous chuckle. "Meme... that might not be the best word." You raised your eyebrows at that as Uncle Ben leaned back. "I don't want to get too much into the history of it all, don't want to bore you with an old man's rambling and, besides, it isn't really the point... but, well... folks my age weren't joking so much when we got frustrated with our folks and grandparents. When your earliest memory is... well, what [mine and your aunt's was](https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/gsvt1zjM7yYLzm9Bv6RhkGcsMkM=/1660x934/smart/filters:no_upscale\(\)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-dmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/NXM2NIG5CG7OIR7ZXZT3YRO3XA.jpg) with the President and we can both say that it only got[ worse](https://www.wesa.fm/sites/wesa/files/styles/x_large/public/201904/1966_NARA_111_SC-631041.jpg) and [worse](https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/zzK0yWvlN71NqMfGYDqPZ4fDI38=/767x0/smart/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/KO47GZGH4MI6RHAPF75PNVBCVI.jpg) and [worse](https://dv2oc5tyj18yr.cloudfront.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2018/03/150318-mlk-joseph-louw-1024x680.jpg) and [worse](https://www.history.com/.image/t_share/MTU3ODc5MDg3MjM2NzE5OTQ1/us-race-riots-detroit.jpg) and [worse](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IwQMpSxRPvc/hqdefault.jpg)... well, it wasn't grand Peter. It wasn't grand.  
  
"God, especially in [New York](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/18/welcome-to-fear-city-the-inside-story-of-new-yorks-civil-war-40-years-on#img-1) at the time. Much as I love the Bronx as where I grew up there's a reason your Aunt and I decided to move to Queens... it was hard times Peter, [hard times.](https://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server5800/lm74w7o/products/160/images/577/ATW_Fear_City_Postcard_2017_PRINTER_SIDE_1A_by_Koe_Rodriguez__23703.1497641058.1280.1280.jpg?c=2) It was hard not to get bitter about it either; our folks... well, of course they suffered too at the time. Heck, they suffered a great deal when they were kids and when their grandparents were growing up too. We knew they did... but they only had stories to share. That's all the Depression was to us at the time; stories that didn't feel all that comforting when they were the runs running the show and just. At the time it just felt like they took that good time in the Post-War for themselves and left us with... well, they called it [malaise](https://mediadc.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0d49ca3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1575+0+342/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediadc.brightspotcdn.com%2F5b%2F75%2Fdaff1aaf4775ba12e6165f2ca5e2%2Fap-7907151380.jpg) and tried to sell it on what we just had to accept going forward. The [bad guys would win](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2019/01/RTR238JU/lead_720_405.jpg?mod=1546616506) and we'd just keep on being reminded that things [wouldn't be like they](https://cdn.britannica.com/92/158492-050-276D9E70/hostage-American-captors-embassy-Iranian-Tehran-November-9-1979.jpg) were for our folks.."  
  
Uncle Ben rubbed his hands together; he looked old and tired, way more than you were used to. As nostalgic and happy as your Uncle could be talking about a lot of his memories of childhood, as excited as he could be reminiscing with you and sharing his thoughts and feelings from when he was a kid... this was different. At this point you were starting to understand the mood around him after he came back if this was the kind of trek down memory lane he was taking.  
  
"It was hard not to get a bit antsy. To feel like maybe they were right about that. That it was what we'd have to deal with... heck, it seemed like it too. Even when some people thought to take a risk on someone, anything else... well, it seemed like there wasn't a point. That would [blow up in our face too](https://images.csmonitor.com/csm/2016/09/1002446_1_0910-john-hinckley-shooter_standard.jpg?alias=standard_900x600), like everything else and we'd just keep marching on forward like we had been. His replacement would be some [old geezer](https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/KNYleGEfb8PSd2OfzADwfWFwMss=/767x0/smart/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/GLIYX3XWQII6RDE2QYGOFKAUR4.jpg) like the rest of them who'd dragged us into so much of this mess to begin with and it'd just keep on going."  
  
"... So... what happened?"  
  
"... Nothing." Ben shrugged, looking through more of the photos from the funeral. "Nothing happened, not even to him; he took that bullet, [he got back up](https://cdnph.upi.com/pv/upi/5eedb7b0b1c2856b7f869ce662277f2b/RONALD-REAGAN.jpg) and... I dunno. Something changed. Something wasn't the way it used to be anymore. The old [Curse of Tippecanoe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe) got broken and for eight years it was just... different. Things could be tough, things [could get tragic](https://www.nhpr.org/sites/nhpr/files/styles/medium/public/201601/challenger-explosion.jpg) but... the tragedy didn't feel like it melted into a sea of it that we were all swimming it. Then and there it felt like it didn't belong anymore because things weren't the same anymore."  
  
"Then 1990 came along and it was my time to march off to war. I'd been too young to take up arms back when Vietnam was raging but now I was a man, healthy and strong and my country was calling for me to step up so I did. Your Aunt was worried... heck, I was worried. Was this gonna be it? A start back down that spiral to where we were growing up? I went, we fought, we won and... it wasn't. The old Commander-in-Chief, Bush Sr., [he brought us back home](https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Video/201811/n_msnbc_brk_mccaffrey_gulf_181130_1920x1080.760;428;7;70;5.jpg). It wasn't like when kids older than me or even adults I knew came back from Vietnam either. When we came back... heck, if I wore my Purple Heart out folks were apt to give me a nod, thank me for my service what have you. So much changed and..." Ben put a hand on his cheek as he pulled back up the photo of the coffin.  
  
"I guess I didn't really think about how much I associated that change with the former President. Why it ended up hitting me harder than I thought it would. Kind of silly I know, he was only one man but... I dunno. I guess I ended up associating so much of that change, that difference from what it was like when I grew up with him and his Presidency. Even when he lost, I couldn't be too upset because... well, the job was well done. Even when things took a turn it wasn't like when I was a kid." Ben sighed as he shook his head. "Then I started to get older and then you start hearing the kids on The Facebook-" _The Facebook,_ hah, "-going on back and forths with other old timers and... well, I think back on how I felt so bitter about my folks and grand folks and how easy it was for them and I wonder if they were amused by it as we are now."  
  
"This is what's called nostalgia when you get to be a crotchety old man Peter." You smiled at that as Ben clasped his hands together. "Guess I can at least finally get what my old man and grandpap thought about FDR now at least."

"Well hey, look on the bright side; it only took you a few decades." You said with a grin and a nod. "Bet I can beat your record, Uncle Ben."  
  
"Hah! Doubt it; smart kid like you'll probably put it together sooner rather than later, kiddo." You grinned as Uncle Ben rubbed at your head, causing you to shift around slightly to get out from underneath the older man's still meaty hand.  
  
"Really though, that's some pretty heavy stuff Uncle Ben... but thanks for sharing it with me. It's always interesting to hear your perspective about stuff and, well..." You didn't quite know how to say how you guided yourself through life in so much partly because of your Uncle's words and his sense of morality. Heck, you were a superhero half out of the idea that you wanted to do right by your Uncle's idea of right and wrong, on top of how awesome it would be. Uncle Ben just smiled warmly at you as he leaned forward.  
  
"Peter, don't thank me. That's what old fogies like me are for; we're supposed to hand down what we know to our kids and grandkids, help teach them a little about the world before they're sent out into it. If anyone should be thanking the other here, it's probably me. After all, the fact that you're so attentive to this old man's ramblings warms my heart." You laugh along with your Uncle as you get your backpack ready again, nodding down at him.  
  
"Well then I guess that makes sitting and listening at least a little worth it." You jabbed as your Uncle leaned back in his seat. "I'm gonna head out now then, Uncle Ben. You gonna be, you know..."  
  
"I'll be fine Peter. Was just about done anyway; you go on ahead and have fun." With a reassuring smile that put a spring in your step you nodded, immediately making for the door.  
  
"I'll be back soon, Uncle Ben!"  
  
"Take care, kiddo!" You closed the door behind you as you sprinted outside, immediately heading out to get your supplies for your costume. Despite how heavy some of the things Uncle Ben had said were, you couldn't help but feel slightly enlivened by your Uncle's reassurance. Alright, time to put that costume together while you had a mood to!

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
With the design work finished, the materials gathered and your final decisions made you go to work. It took hours to put everything together and spread across two days; every stitch you wanted in the right spot, every little detail in the fabric had to be carefully woven in, especially when it came to the spider web design that would criss-cross across much of the costume. The mask was one of the last things you worked on, setting up leather padding for the design around the eyes before sewing cloth on top of it; it wouldn't be as protective as your goggles but it would allow you a good degree of expression, at least in the eyes of your mask, which... well, hey, if you were the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, you figured you'd need more of that than eye protection when you were already so quick and able to move around.  
  
The second hardest things were sewing the cloth onto the... ballet shoes you'd bought to help the costume hold the mold of its feet. Yeah, that hadn't been awkward to explain why you were buying male ballerina shoes while maintaining your pride. However, you'd need something small, foot-shaped and easy enough to slip into that it could be used for the feet of your costume and, well, ballerina shoes were really the only thing that immediately came to mind. You couldn't just slip your feet into bare cloth, after all.  
  
It was long, detailed work that, admittedly, you managed to do quite well; while imagining the design was still tricky for you, your hands were now so careful, so dexterous that the art of weaving the needle and thread into the cloth was simple enough.  
  
Soon enough though, the fruits of your labors were readily apparent... others might've taken time to let it all sit, to enjoy it before breaking it in... but, well, you made this to be a superhero, and there was only one way in your mind to properly break this bad boy in.  
  
Not long after and with an easy change now that it could fit under your costume... wow.  
  
You could feel the difference. As you soared through the air off of a powerful swing your costume didn't flap and drag on the wind. It was smooth and close to your skin, hiding your thermals underneath perfectly as you just sailed through the air with nary of a flap of clothing. If you made a costume like this out of the material skydivers used you could only imagine how little drag you'd have... but even with normal cloth the difference was palpable. You swung through the air without much resistance, crying out in pure joy as you reached speeds you weren't able to before thanks to the drag. Your eyes, while not perfectly protected by the cloth, were still able to stay open and see despite the wind as you quickly course-corrected across Brooklyn, patrolling around as you sought out a crime to stop.  
  
Eventually you came to a halt, stopping just on the edge of a building as you took a moment to stand tall and look down at your gloved hands...  
  
Yes.  
  
[Now this is what a Superhero was supposed to look like.](https://i.imgur.com/5vmIbHL.png) You took a deep breath as you stretched out for a moment, ready to give Ned a call to see what else was going bump in the night when you saw, from the corner of your eye, a car driving up along the road. It was going pretty fast, too fast, and while you weren't going to pull over somebody from speeding it was a little unusual.  
  
Especially when a garage door opened up and a handful of either guys dressed up in gear all quickly ushered the car into the garage, taking a careful look around before quickly closing the garage door.  
  
"Oh, what do we have here?" You remarked, firing off a string of Webbing before swinging on over to the building. You landed on a sidewall of a building, close to a window that allowed you to peer into the garage; the car was being pulled up into a workstation in the middle, several power tools and various other tools readied at stations surrounding some kind of car lift like you saw at Uncle Ben's workplace. Other cars were being worked on as well... well, 'worked on', they were being torn apart more like it.  
  
A chop shop, huh?  
  
There were a crew of 8 guys, including the guy who just jumped out of the newly brought in car, who were working on tearing these vehicles apart. Three were already working on one vehicle, one was looking over a second, the driver just got out of his and the three who'd quickly opened the garage door to usher the new car in were quickly trying to get back to work.  
  
Well, now wasn't this a pretty picture? You looked around; okay so aside from a side door that lead in from another part of the building, the garage doors themselves and this window there were a handful of other windows...  
  
Judging by the window you were next to they were meant to be opened, likely to air out fumes and such. Looking around... no skylight, so these would be your options for getting in.

Alright, you decide that before you really get to work on taking these guys out that you're gonna need to do a little bit of prep work. Quickly crawling your way around the building back out to the front you set yourself up in front of the two garage doors; they're pretty heavy duty doors like the ones at Uncle Ben's place of work which meant that their motors were probably pretty strong. Taking some precaution in that case you quickly fire three Weblines form each Web Shooter, tagging the doors equally in order to try and ensure that, even once the motor goes, it won't be able to lift. The strands won't be perfectly additive, you realize, with their strands not being crisscrossed but they'll do as far as keeping the doors shut. With that over and done with you quickly maneuvered back up to the window.  
  
A little bit of careful inspection later and you figure out how, exactly, to get this window open. It's a slow process as you test it just to be certain that the hinges aren't creaky and won't give you away. However, upon cracking it open slightly the noise inside of the garage starts to blare out and, hoo boy, yeah, you forgot how loud active mechanic work could be. So with a big of a shrug you shimmy your way on in through the window and then slowly close it. You're trying to be a surprise, to give them a bit of a shock... but, well-  
  
"Hey... HEY! Everyone, shut the fuck up and look, the Spider-Creep!" You looked down from your perch to see who had just so rudely blown your cover and announced your presence to the room; turns out it was one of the guys who was currently handling looking over the new car they just pulled in. You still grinned though; only one of them spotted you, which meant if you acted quickly enough...  
  
"Guys, guys! I can see from your shoddy craftsmanship that you all are new to the whole mechanic thing but, come on! The parts are supposed to stay _in the cars!"_ You quipped as you fired off two Weblines, attaching them to two different hands from two different goons before sticking them to the wall you were on for prep and to limit their movement early. "That's just the basics of car repair!" You narrowed your eyes in glee, enjoying the feeling of your mask moving ever so slightly along with that gesture as per your design. However, your eyes went a bit wide when, in turn, the two goons you just Webbed up like that turned the tools they had on the Webbing, cutting through it quickly before glaring at you.  
  
Oh, duh, power tools. Welp, Webbing them up wasn't going to be the play this time; time to kick ass. Watching some of the goons try to open the garage doors, to no avail as the motors creaked and struggled against the tension provided by your Webbing, while two other guys pulled out handguns, you quickly jumped away from your position on the wall, narrowly avoiding gunfire as you landed in the midst of a trio of these goons whom had armed themselves with power tools.  
  
"Be careful with the tools and the oil boys, just made this costume so I don't want it to get dirty al-READY!" With a quick kick out you narrowly missed striking one of the guys, though his luck didn't hold as with a bit of a twist around you brought your other leg to strike him in the shoulder. He winced before a quick turn brought your fist across his face, sending him struggling to stand as you swung around for another one of the thugs. You actually hopped onto both of your feet this time and delivered a quick series of light punches to his chest, hoping they'd put him down. Surprisingly enough he was still standing quite easily... huh, maybe you went a little too light on those punches?  
  
Before long the jokers all picked up their power tools and started swinging. As one narrowed in on you, alerting your Spider Sense, you took one good look at the saw blade... and quickly thought better of blocking it with your hands in order to avoid the hit. Yeah, that wouldn't go well. So you just started dipping and ducking around the blows that might seriously hurt you, the rest flying wide as the rest of them got tangled up in the wires and were actively avoiding hitting themselves or each other. Even the two guys with guns in large part missed, though you had to duck out of the way of one bullet before another guy's power tool ground into the roof of the car you were standing on.  
  
"Oh hey be careful man! Remember, metal's supposed to stay _on the car!_ Man you guys are just the worst mechanics!" You quickly shot out a foot into the guy's shoulder, causing him to fly back and collide with the bare skeleton of a car, tipping inside and dropping like a stone. Soon enough you turned on his two other friends and, with a solid back and forth motion you lashed out at both of them, finishing your work with both of them by slamming their faces into the still solid roof of the car. With these suckers now bounced around a bit you quickly leaped as high and far as you could, landing just between the two gun-wielding goons as you smiled at them.  
  
"Howdy!" You declared as they each turned a pistol on you; with a quick dodge, helped by the fact that they were trying to avoid friendly fire, you avoided their crossfire and then turned the tables, quickly smacking the tar out of the two boys with a laugh. One was knocked back onto a table, flipping it over and dumping a bunch of small parts on his head before he passed out from the pain while the other struggled to maintain his footing. The other goons, dropping one by one from their own beat downs, tried to stumble on over to you with their tools still in hand. It would've been cute if they weren't so potentially lethal. As all this went on you heard one of your Weblines snap over all the commotion, causing you to raise your eyebrows under your mask as you looked at the two other guys frantically beating away at the doors.  
  
"Sorry to throw a wrench into your escape plans fellas-" You started as you leaped over, landing and sticking to the wall just above the door switches as both of them flinched, "-but, well, here I am!" You watched the goons you beat the tar out of earlier slowly turned around and went back to trying to catch up with you, the goon with a gun taking a misplaced pot shot at you in turn. Before the two handling the door could do much one of them screamed and made a break for one of the cars while the other tried to throw a punch at you. The effort was... well, an effort as you quickly turned to kick the crap out of him, sending him flying into the nearby remains of a car that he tripped over before collapsing on the ground, unconscious.  
  
With a quick Webline fired off you swung over, landing on top of the hood of the car before the last grunt could even slip inside.  
  
"Hey, tell you what there friend, give me your honest opinion on my suit and I just might let you go." You declared, causing the guy to shiver a bit as you nonchalantly dodged out of the way of a bullet. This last move seemed to really break the will of the other goons who had been dropping one by one to their woozy heads and sore ribs. The guy just stared at you for a moment, licking his lips as he looked between you and the driver's seat.  
  
...  
  
"It looks... nice?" He said, causing you to shake your head.  
  
"That isn't your honest opinion, is it?"  
  
...  
  
"I'm sorry." The goon's shoulders dipped as he raised his hands in surrender, the others soon following suit after dropping their weapons.  
  
"Well you have a lot of things to be sorry about I'm afraid." You said with a glib tone as you smiled under your mask. Now then... how to clean up this mess...  
  


"You know guys... it's only just now occurring to me but, well, I just can't shake the feeling that these aren't your cars! I mean, surely if they were yours you'd be taking better care of them than these rush jobs." The goon groaned as you slowly but surely set about securing each and every single one of his friends. You looked over the ones you knocked out before Webbing them up, trying to make sure there was no sign of either internal bleeding or bad head wounds from a loose tool or smacking their head on something. While a couple assuredly had a broken rib or two from your beating, it didn't seem to puncture anything or hurt them too badly, and so a quick spray down to ensure they stayed down was in order. At the same time you quickly went about Webbing the various tools or other weapons they had on them to the walls, making sure they wouldn't be able to cut themselves free or hurt any police when they did come by.  
  
All in all it was pretty easy to do; even the guys who hadn't been knocked out at first slowly but surely gave way to their beatings, passing out from the pain in turn as you slowly but surely left them either handing or stuck on the ground.  
  
"In any case, it's definitely been fun my good man but, well, all fun times must end sooner or later. It's time for me to... _hit the road."_ You pointed a pair of finger guns at the last conscious crook, the man groaning, this time in pure disgust at your joke, as you sighed internally. One of these days Peter, one of these days someone would laugh. Until then... "By the way?" You started, jumping on back up to the open window as the guy followed you. "... I forgive you for lying to me." With a spray of your Webbing you quickly pulled yourself through the open window and out into the world. You swung by the entrance to take care of the remaining Webbing and then swung off, ready to hang off word to Ned so that he could contact the police.  
  
All in all another good day for Spidey... and an amazing debut for the new costume. As you looked down at the arm of your suit, really taking in the details, you couldn't help but feel an all new rush of excitement move through you. While you'd always felt like a Superhero ever since you started putting your powers to work protecting people... now? Now you looked like a Superhero.  
  
That...  
  
That was just pure **awesome**.


	40. The Devil Of Hell's Kitchen

_"Hey listen, thanks for taking this call Peter. Really appreciate it."_  
  
"Hey it's no problem Liz, you said you wanted to talk while you were moving and I figured, hey, been a little while since I heard from you so why not. I'm sure it won't be-" You paused, a loud banging sound coming through the phone as Liz moved a box around her apartment, apparently banging into a wall near the door, "-too noticeable." You said with a chuckle as Liz had the courtesy to sound sheepish. The text messages beforehand had basically filled you into the situation; now that the school year was done and Liz had a lot more free time, her mother very quickly decided that now was the time to get to work moving the last of Liz's stuff, and indeed a great deal of the 'family' stuff, out of her father's apartment. It'd been a long time coming while the police investigated it in order to ensure that they wouldn't be missing any new evidence but, now, the family finally had the opportunity to start moving on.  
  
Liz, in her own words, just wanted to vent to someone during this admittedly rough process but was open about admitting that she felt like she'd already talked everyone else's ear off about this. So she had asked, politely, if she might borrow yours...  
  
Curse your proper upbringing. Uncle Ben and Aunt May would've been ashamed of you if you'd said no. So now here you were working on plans for moving around the neighborhood and potentially plowing snow now that it was beginning to properly fall when you did future odd jobs, while you and Liz chatted amidst the sound of all of these moving parts in her apartment.  
  
 _"Sorry about the noise Peter. Dad had a lot of stuff here the police said wasn't related to their investigation. What's ours, or at least what mom and dad bought for me here, we're having to move too. So we needed help from some help moving the bigger stuff."_ Liz offered up the explanation as a sort of means to getting into an apology, one that just caused you to nod understandingly. _"Actually had to do something like this once already when mom and dad got a divorce... have to admit, I didn't think that day would get topped ever but... you know. Getting to repeat it under worse circumstances certainly manages to clear that bar."_ You wince at the tone, the slight amount of frustration and venom that she was expelling through that vent. You could perfectly understand it, God knew that she was going through some shit.  
  
"Yeah... you got dealt a really rotten hand here Liz. Sorry." Liz scoffed at that on the other end of the line.  
  
 _"Hey, it's not your fault Peter, you have nothing to apologize for."_ You knew that, of course. Even knowing that you were Spider-Man you knew that. It wasn't your fault that Toomes went off the deep end and tried to get back at Norman Osborn, even if it meant hurting innocent people along the way. It wasn't Spider-Man's fault that Vulture had to be stopped... still, every time you were reminded about how Toomes' family was hurting because of this you just couldn't help but feel at least a little bad about it, couldn't help but feel at least a little guilty, ill-placed as it was.  
  
"I know, I know. Just hard to hear that it's going so rough for you. Sorry's the only thing that sounds right to say." Which, well, was the problem for you personally.  
  
 _"Now can you see why I wanted to tag Flash and the others out a bit?"_ You laughed ever so slightly at that as you nodded, Liz putting a box down behind a moving van as she wiped some sweat off of her brow. _"It isn't fun to hear about stuff like this. It isn't fun to have that hanging over your head or to feel like you need to help someone out with it. Flash and my other friends, they've been really good about it but... well, I don't want to bother them constantly with about it. I don't want to **be bothered** about it. I really just want to move on but... well."_ Liz threw her hands out, motioning to the boxes and furniture that were being stacked up in the back of the moving van. _"Kind of hard to move on with her life when you're constantly being reminded of what happened. First the police kept bothering us about what my dad was up to and now my mom dragged me here... I get why but... man..."_ Liz ran a hand through her hair as she huffed a bit, her breath condensing in the frigid winter air before she ended up walking back inside the apartment building to start riding the elevator right back up.

"Hey it's cool Liz, I get it. Even if they are your friends and you know they'd never actually push you away or tell you that you're being a downer, it's how you feel." You scratched the back of your neck as this sentiment hit a little close to home for you considering all the new stuff happening in your life. It had some more meaning to you, as of late. "Logic or peoples reassurances isn't going to easily fix that."  
  
 _"I appreciate it Peter. I just feel lousy with all this complaining, especially given it's been going on for so long. I just kind of want it to be over but in the meantime... ugh, just feel like I'll explode if I don't get it off my chest. It's better for me to do it than not but I can't help but feel like a pain, especially knowing everyone else is going through stuff too."_ You nodded at that, though you couldn't help but grin on your end of the phone as you leaned back in your seat.  
  
"Yeah, that's fair... although I think you might be going a little hard on yourself. I know that everybody goes through stuff but I think considering what you went through that nobody would give you much flak for complaining about it." Liz laughed on the other end of the line, the young woman's chortles turning into a slight grunt as it sounded like she picked up another box on her end.  
  
 _"I guess I am the gold medalist in the Bullshit Olympics lately, huh?"_ You tossed it around in your head; arguably Harry himself was close, maybe even Norman Osborn considering he was the guy being targeted by Vulture, but at best you could place them as silver compared to what Liz had been forced to go through. _"Still, even if they aren't as big as my problems I don't like the idea of writing them off for that reason. Everyone's gotta deal with their own stuff right and it's not like it's any less important. Randy's dad's been working a lot of overtime at the Bugle thanks to all the stuff that's been happening this holiday season that they've been trying to cover. King Kong and Gloria are kind of exiting that whole Honeymoon phase of the relationship and so they're having to work on that. Flash has been sweet about all this and helping me, even offered to help me move but I didn't want to impose even more on him. Especially considering how the end of the season went for him. They were so close to qualifying for the Championship this year."_  
  
Oh yeah you'd heard about that. While it was supposed to be impressive that a team with so many Sophomores on it had gotten so far into the season, an accomplishment on its own, you did have to imagine that getting so close and losing anyway must've been a sore spot for Flash all things considered.  
  
 _"Still, none of that compares to what Hobie's been having to deal with."_  
  
...  
  
Oh boy, this was gonna get awkward. Bad enough you were talking to Liz, the daughter of the guy you put away as Spider-Man, now you were going to have to talk about Hobie, the kid your age you put away and one of Liz's friends.  
  
"Did something happen with Hobie? I'm not really in with your crowd so I only really noticed he hadn't shown up at school for a while." You commented, lying your ass off but being incredibly thankful that it was over the phone.  
  
 _"Yeah, something did happen. His family seemed devastated by the news and it really took a lot of us off guard. We had no idea... shows what good friends we were, right? That we didn't even know something like this about him. That we never even tried to talk to him to figure it out."_ It sounded like they were all taking it hard. You frowned as you stroked your chin, trying to think of a way to say anything about this that might help out. _"I mean, his uncle dies and we don't even know he had an uncle in the first place? You should've seen his mom; she was just in tears. They were all so close."_  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Uh... run that by me again?" You can't help but ask that, stunned as you do so.  
  
 _"Yeah, that was about my reaction too when we heard the news. It was just kind of a surprise how little we actually knew about Hobie. Hobie's mom had a brother, Aaron Davis, who died pretty much the week before exams. It really took the family by surprise; some freak hemorrhage in his head that he couldn't get treated in time. Hobie's family is heading over in order to take over the funeral arrangements; dude was kind of a loner according to Mrs. Brown."_  
  
"I... huh, that's... sad." You kind of just go through the motions as you say all this, your mind simultaneously dead in its tracks while also whirring at a mile a minute.  
  
 _"It really is. I feel so bad for them. About the only good news to come out of it is that apparently Aaron was loaded and he left everything to Hobie's mom! So I guess their financial situation's pretty much fixed now. It's not a worthwhile trade according to them, they'd much rather have Aaron alive, but it's at least a silver lining. Plus the school sent Hobie's finals out to him to take while he and his family are going through this, so he still has a chance to pass this semester before he comes back sometime next year. They've apparently got a lot to get in order."_  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Okay... what?!

"Sounds... rough. I hope everything works out for him and his family." You spoke cautiously, trying your best to keep your bemusement out of your voice as you looked off to the side. This... this wasn't what you were expecting. You unmasked Hobie yourself, took a good long look at his face after stopping him from robbing the place. He was right there and you know you recognized him and you knew, for a fact, that 'The Prowler' had been caught. It had been on the Daily Bugle, after all. So he shouldn't be out of jail, he should be in jail and awaiting some kind of investigation or trial considering all the strange circumstances that surrounded this situation.  
  
Some poor kid from Queens getting such a high tech costume and robbing people? That just seemed bizarre... and yet the story coming out was something about his Uncle's death and a fortune? That he was just taking care of family stuff before he'd come back to school?  
  
Maybe the police were disseminating this story to cover for the weirdness of the case? Maybe Hobie's family were lying for him to keep people from finding out? You'd figure a lie like that couldn't stand up to much scrutiny for long. So maybe that was it? Maybe either story was it... or maybe Hobie having some kind of benefactor who got him the suit wasn't as crazy as you thought it was. Reporting hadn't come out about the nature of the suit, aside from how apparently hi-tech it looked. No reporting on where it came from or how it got into someone like Hobie's hands.  
  
Still, you couldn't show how suspicious you were right now. Hobie was just an acquaintance and, besides, it'd be pretty weird if Peter Parker of all people was suspicious about this. You had no reason too; heck, everyone else knew Hobie better than you did and they didn't seem to find it suspicious that he had an uncle...  
  
Maybe he did have an uncle? Maybe he did really die? The thoughts whirled in your head and you could just tell that this was going to bug you.  
  
 _"I know you weren't really friends with Hobie which is why I figured it'd be easier for me to talk with you about the move than everyone else. Everyone's worried that his family's really broken up about his uncle. They all left so suddenly, after all."_ You shook your head and nodded at that, doing your best to smile... which, well, the gesture was kind of wasted over the phone.  
  
"Hey it's no problem. You're right, this is something big for you all to think about but, well, I... don't really know Hobie so the news isn't as big for me. Even if it was, I'd be open to hearing out your own worries, Liz." You heard a relieved sigh on the other end of the line. Slowly but surely the conversation turned back to the mood, you doing your best to give someone you knew an ear to vent to while your own mind slowly but surely turned back to Hobie.  
  
It was a lie, sure; you were thinking a whole lot about Hobie now... just not for the reasons Liz thought.  
  
This was really crazy...

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You had to admit, for someone who wanted to get into the music business and fancied herself a drummer, Gwen certainly had the interesting messages on social media part down pat. Well, not social media in this particular case but, hey, a text message with a picture was kind of like a tweet, right? Sort of... if you squinted at it? Well, in the midst of your day you ended up getting a text from Gwen, a picture of her blasting away at her drums while some of her other friends sat by and laughed, joining in with their own instruments. 'Freedom!' was the message that underwrote the picture itself, but a further text gave more light to the situation.  
  
 _"Gonna play till our fingers are numb."_  
  
You laughed at that, rolling your eyes slightly at the boast but understanding what they were getting at. For folks who weren't naturally gifted when it came to school stuff, and even for folks like you who could be, finals were a pain. Especially if you had things that felt better to do on the back burner like being a Superhero or playing the drums. Like, that was droning, boring tests replacing something that you genuinely found fun and exciting and really wanted to do. So you could in no way doubt that Gwen and her friends were positively enthused to get back into playing music. You just doubted that they were actually going to do something as extreme as play for hours and hours on end until their fingers went numb. You chuckled and prepared to close your messenger... when you noticed something.  
  
This text had been from hours ago. Seemingly in time with this realization you quickly got a call from Gwen, causing you to nearly drop your phone in surprise from the suddenness of it all before you quickly activated the call and brought your phone to your ear.  
  
"Uh, hey there. Actually just noticed your text... you guys..."  
  
 _"Yeah, we're going ahead and taking a break. Seems like the right time to do so given that Maria's skin broke a bit on her thumb. Woops!"_ Despite that statement causing you to cringe ever so slightly at the thought of repeatedly doing a task till you literally broke your own skin, that feeling was tempered by the fact that Gwen didn't sound discouraged or even down that this happened. Quite the opposite, Gwen was laughing somewhat and you could even hear banter going on in the back of the call. Gwen's other three friends were laughing and bullshitting in the background, with Maria's own voice and laughter coming through as the members of Gwen's band all seemed to go their own way.  
  
"Well, sounds like you guys are having a blast despite it." You heard Gwen give a small chuckle at that, though that quickly came with a swift intake of breath.  
  
 _"We are but, man, I probably should've taken them seriously when they said we weren't gonna play till we were numb. My arms are killing me; you wouldn't think that slapping a couple sticks on a drum would feel more like a workout after a while but, hey, today the girls and I are doing the experiments, I guess."_ You couldn't help but chortle at that as Gwen you heard the sound of some can, sounded like soda, being popped. _"Thought I'd go ahead and take the break as an opportunity to call in with a few other folks I didn't talk to much during finals and see what was up. We were all so busy with those lame tests and the cramming beforehand that it feels like we barely talked at all."_  
  
"Probably cause we didn't, not really." You said with a small grin as you rolled your eyes. "Plus I see how it is Gwen, I see the pecking order; you decided to rock out for hours, maybe even days, on end before talking to the poor science guy, Peter Parker. Well, it's good to know where I stand on the social totem pole." You said with a faux-hurt tone as you barely withheld your own chuckles. Gwen just stayed silent for a moment, causing you to wonder if you made her think your feelings were hurt... before you heard her own barely concealed laughter.  
  
 _"Well Peter, I don't know what to tell you; it really do be like that sometimes."_  
  
...  
  
You couldn't help but snort at that. Man, if Ned heard that, he would've cringed.

"That it do Gwen, that it do." You say, a slight roll of your eyes on the other end of the line as Gwen just chuckles to herself, quite satisfied. "Still, I'm glad you called to check in Gwen. It at least gives me hope that one day, when you and your band make it big, that you all won't forget all the little people you met along the way."  
  
 _"Oh Peter, I'm surprised you could think like that... of course we're going to forget all the little people when we become famous rock stars! How could we not when we won't even be able to see you all over our piles of MONEY!"  
  
"MONEY!"  
  
"MONEY!"  
  
"Pfft, money. Way too mainstream for me."_  
  
The series of cheers, and jokes, on the other end of the line caused a small round of laughter to echo in the call, one that was slowly silenced as it seemed everyone was getting back to their own particular breaks.  
  
"So I'm guessing that finals were a bit of a drag for you all, then?" You heard a snort on the other end of the line; you figured that you didn't have to ask but, hey, it was a good way to keep the conversation moving.  
  
 _"I mean... I don't really want to complain about how hard Sophomore Exams are in front of you Peter, seeing as how I go the sneaking suspicion you probably aced them..."_  
  
"That is discrimination and I won't have any part of it Gwen." You remark as you can just imagine Gwen rolling her eyes on the other end of the call. "Still, it's not like I didn't find them boring or kind of hard to focus on myself. It's a lot of busy work in a multiple choice exam. Even if I did ace them, didn't stop them from being incredibly boring." You admitted as you shrugged; though as ever you breezed through the science ones without even putting in too much worry except for time. The others were more hassles and the drain they took on your time was, therefore, far more noticeable.  
  
 _"Well that's good to hear at least. In that case, yeah, they were a pretty big drag for all of us. I'm pretty sharp myself but my head's far more in the creative scene than stuff dealing with science and the like, though I guess you probably got that impression from before."_ You had and, hey, there was nothing wrong with being more creatively inclined; your Aunt was definitely one of those sorts. _"For the others... well, let's just say if I'm sharp and it was a drag for me, then I think some of my friends are sweating over the results."_  
  
The sound of an empty aluminum can can be heard bouncing off someone's head as you wince, Gwen laughing as some of her friends just mouthed off for a moment congenially. _"Hopefully we'll all get good enough marks that the folks will still let all of us come together and practice. Part of me going dark for so long was holding this whole group study thing for all of us could work together to make sure that we all managed to clamber our way across that finish line at least. For all my barbs, I'm pretty confident that we'll reach that at least. Who knows, some of them might even do better thanks to myself."  
  
"She tried to make us her teacher's pets. You should've seen it, dude."  
  
"Lies! Lies and slander." _Gwen declared as, by the sounds of it, Maria came on over to quickly duck her head into the call before running off. _"... I swear you try and get them to actually recite their answers back to you to make sure that they actually know what they're talking about and next it's 'Yes Mrs. Stacy, here's your apple Mrs. Stacy.' Ugh."_

"Oh trust me I know the feeling." You said with a laugh, leaning back a bit in your seat as you rolled your eyes. "You wouldn't believe the back sass Ned gave me when I asked him if he was studying only for it to turn out he had to turn to cramming in the last few days before school. Kids today, I tell ya. Don't know they're born." You shook your fist at that as you laughed, causing Gwen to chuckle on her own end of the phone line.  
  
 _"Yeah I here you... don't know what that last thing means but I hear you. Millennial need to learn that you can't just sit around and play all day. You gotta study and work hard and-"  
  
"Woah there Boomer, watch out, your blood pressure might spike!"_ Gwen groaned again as you heard something being thrown, a gaggle of giggles echoing out from the other end of the phone as Gwen huffed.  
  
 _"Anyway, glad to hear we weren't the only ones with troubles anyway. If a smart guy like you is bored and completely out of it thanks to these tests then they really do have to be pretty terrible."_ Gwen adjusted her phone, the fumbling bouncing around in your ear a bit before she continued. _"I mean, man, they cut down on music and art classes for stuff like this? Kind of lame if you ask me. Could only imagine how much worse it'd be if I didn't end up at a school like Midtown."_ You nodded at that; as much as you could rag on the tests at Midtown, you had to imagine other schools, especially ones less well off, might've been even worse about stuff like this considering it was their only option.  
  
"It's rough but, hey, what are ya gonna do? School's school and everyone has to get through it at some point... or, well, almost everyone." You said as Gwen gave a small hum, though you could imagine the slight grin on her face from the sound of it.  
  
 _"True... or my friends and I can hit it big in the music scene, start making all our money and then drop out of high school without a care in the world! Start trading on the New York Stock Exchange and go on easy street for the rest of our days!"_  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"I'm gonna be honest, that sounds like a terrible plan realistically."  
  
 _"You're probably right but let me have this, smart guy. Let a girl dream."_ You shook your head at that but let Gwen go on, the two of you talking for a while longer before her band was ready to get back to practicing. As the two of you said your goodbyes and went back to your business... well, even if dreams could be unrealistic, it was okay to have them right? After all, a dream of being a superhero would've been perfectly ludicrous for someone like you even five months ago.  
  
Maybe having unrealistic dreams wasn't such a bad thing. Especially since it seemed like, these days, the impossible was increasingly possible.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
[ ***Yodeling***](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWao9izTMTw)  
  
"Talk to me."  
  
You pulled your phone out of your backpack as you swung around Manhattan, eyes carefully peeled for any sign of crime or distress that you could swing in to help out with. Today had been relatively peaceful, the winter's touch beginning to be seen in the lack of a lot more outdoor and obvious crime. You were still hearing from Ned about potential crimes happening way outside your reach, of course, but it seemed like whenever you swung into a neighborhood that things were quiet at the moment. Which was fine enough; while the night wasn't wholly peaceful by any means it did at least mean that it was relatively quiet. Plus, hey, it gave you and opportunity to practice swinging around Manhattan more, which was always welcome.  
  
As the night was setting in earlier and earlier the time for you to call it on your patrol was approaching as well. It was dark, the city lights being the only thing aside from the moon illuminating your way ahead, and it was getting pretty chilly, even with your thermals on to help protect you. Still, if Ned was calling that had to mean he was onto something and so you decided to see what he had.  
  
 _"Where are you right about now? Last time you said you were close to Park Avenue, right?"_ You gave a short grunt of affirmation as Ned clapped his hands. _"Car chase getting off Park Avenue and heading down West 49th. The police are breaking off the chase because they've gotten so far ahead but given that you're not bound by traffic maybe you can make the catch?"_  
  
"Thanks man, you just saved this night from being completely quiet! Spidey out!" You turned off your phone and tossed it back into your backpack before crying out in joy, taking a hard swing down as you sought to increase your speed. Alright, some action! Perfect way to cap off an evening of patrolling around! Even if patrolling in general did help, people seeing you and what not, stopping a crime seemed to have a bigger impact judging by Ned's read of the situation later on. If you could stop these guys when the police had been forced to end their chase then that'd be a big message to send on top of everything else! You quickly swung on over to West 49th and started pursuing, swinging on down as you kept your eyes peeled for any sign of an irregular driver. You kept swinging and swinging at the street kept right on going and, before long, you thought you spotted a car making a pretty wide swing some ways down the road.  
  
Worth checking out at least. Traffic was also oddly backed up at this point, likely a sign of some wild driver moving their way on through. At this point it was about the only lead you had so you moved in, swinging about as you finally started swinging in and amidst the roads and alleys that cut their way through blocks of buildings. You kept your eyes open for that car that took the turn, turning your head about to let your masked head get a better view of the entire road. You eventually swung up and around, attaching yourself to a wall in order to try and get a better vantage point.  
  
"Alright... now if I were a bunch of crooks and goons looking to stow myself away somewhere on Manhattan, where would I think the safest place to park my car would be..." You scratched your chin at that, firing off another Webline as you started patrolling around a bit, looking for any sign of the vehicle you'd seen or that Ned had hinted was coming this way. Eventually you caught your break; a loud banging sound that sounded like a car door being slammed caught your ear. You paused and turned up, the sound of more banging and moving being heard. Well, well, well. Sounded like _someone_ was in a hurry. Time for Spidey to take a trip to see who it was and who needed a good butt-kicking this fine evening. You swung in the direction of the crash, in a mess of buildings towards an alley that turned off from the main road, naturally. Bright neon sending colored light glistening through the colored snow lit the alley as you swung around, looking for the source of the noise so you could make your entrance.  
  
In good time you eventually found... well, half the source of the noise. Your eyes widened in surprise as you swung into the main part of the alley, dropping from your Webline to land on the ground, with only the slightest slip from the ice, so that you could get a better look at what you _thought_ you saw. Sure enough [your eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di7W_OYQOmI) weren't deceiving you. The car was indeed here and, indeed, it looked like four thugs dressed up in ski masks with pieces... well, previously on them but scattered throughout the alley, were present. These were clearly criminals but... well, they weren't exactly in their element.  
  
One had his entire upper body crashed through the passenger side window of the car, his still breathing body heaving pained sighs as he barely shifted around, a bit of bleeding from the broken glass present. Another goon was still thrashing about on the ground, consciousness only driven by the amount of pain he was in as he instinctively held onto what was clearly a broken arm as his thrashing slowly gave out in the snow. Another was sitting up against the wall, nose bleeding heavily as he'd clearly had his lights knocked clear out. Lastly the last of them had been dragged back through the snow a ways, judging by the trail that lead to his body as he laid back on the snow, face bruises up ever so slightly from what had, presumably, been a beat down.  
  
Oooh... kay? What the Hell happened here. Your mask's eyes were wide, matching your own, as you crunched through the snow, taking all of this. Was it Frank Castle again? Did you trip across him and his crime scene again... no. No that was impossible. You'd heard no gunshots, first off, and secondly... beaten and bruised as these guys were they were actually, you know, alive. Just what the Hell had happened to them, then?  
  
"... A little late and a little cold for a kid to wind up in some dark back alley, don't you think? You could've stumbled into some serious trouble."  
  
You couldn't help but shudder at the intense edge of the voice; something that demanded a certain amount of respect that made a chill crawl up your spine and lifted the hairs on the back of your neck. You looked up at the source of the voice and... well, you found your answer. Standing up on the edge of a roof was an imposing looking man, looking down at you through black lenses built into the black bandanna he wore as a mask. Illuminated by the back of a neon sign that blared out light in all directions on the roof he was standing on, some kind of cane or cudgel in his hand. He stood there, a stern shadowy figure that seemed to dampen the very light he stood amidst.  
  
It occurred to you that you'd been swinging along for a while on West 49th...  
  
You realized that you must've swung into Hell's Kitchen.  
  
Then this...  
  
This was him. The other New York Vigilante you'd heard about. [The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.](https://fsmedia.imgix.net/b2/91/b3/58/1062/4ce9/860b/388ae63b633e/miss-this-look-matt-murdock-is-going-retro-in-daredevil-season-3-still-photo-from-daredevil-se.jpeg?rect=0%2C68%2C2926%2C1462&auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&w=650)  
  
"Seems to me like you've got no reason to be here; go back home."

Well... he was certainly being territorial and a bit rude. Still, you could understand the former; dude was literally named 'The Devil of Hell's Kitchen'. Not only was the theming on point but... well, if he was spending so much time in Hell's Kitchen as to be made synonymous with it through his name, he must've been putting a lot of work into this place. It clearly meant a lot to him if he was putting in that much work as a vigilante to protect this neighborhood. Maybe it was his own neighborhood or the one he lived in as a kid, like with Uncle Ben and The Bronx? In any case, you were intruding on his turf and so you could understand why he might be a bit hostile.  
  
Understand, even if you didn't wholly approve... but hey, you weren't gonna start a fight over someone being just a little bit rude to you. You both were vigilante heroes after all and that'd be pretty counterproductive. Even if he was super violent against these dudes too... well, the Devil was no Frank Castle, you'd grant him at least that. So you really didn't have a reason to be here and fight, especially with the criminals already taken care of. So you scratched your head sheepishly, giving a small grin under your mask as you decided to leave under the best terms you could.  
  
"Well... my mom told me to never listen to ninjas. Especially ninjas in dark alleys." You see the man tense up a bit at that, clearly expecting something, before you shrugged your shoulders. "But sure, I don't see why not. You dealt with the bad guys and my mom never really _specified_ about the kind of ninjas I should ignore. So I'll head out." You cracked your fingers a bit as you said this; after having pushed yourself in the chase to find these guys they were a bit sore but nothing too crazy. The Devil seemed to relax ever so slightly at that, though those black lenses over his eyes continued to stare right at your direction. "Want me to web these guys up for you before I leave? It's cheaper than rope and, I'll tell you, it's pretty strong stuff." You didn't want to toot your own horn too much of course, the dude clearly wasn't the biggest fan of you being around, but hey it was polite enough to offer, you thought.  
  
...  
  
"No." Was all he said, causing you to wince a bit at the tone of it. Very forward, very strict, very on point. No, he didn't want your Webbing.  
  
"Right, course. Clearly you're not exactly a big fan of me being here and you really don't want my help. Sure, uh, sorry about all this. I'll go ahead and just-"  
  
"Unless of course you'd like to take credit for... well, all this." The Devil waved his hand at the scene of the carnage, causing you to glance over at it all. Again you took in the sights; by now the guy who had been thrashing in the pain in the snow had stopped, his broken arm still twitching. The rest of his friends were as unconscious as ever, blood dripping or breathing being shallow and pained. You winced at that as you realize what he meant; tie up these guys in patented Spider-Man Webbing and it wouldn't be The Devil of Hell's Kitchen's fight that took place here, it'd be taken as yours... which would mean reporting would spread wide and fast that suddenly the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was breaking limbs, throwing people through glass, beating them senseless and generally just being super aggressive.  
  
Which probably wouldn't be a good look all things considered. Heck, you wouldn't necessarily like that look for yourself either.  
  
"Right, uh, of course that's what you meant. Sorry, still kind of figuring this whole vigilante thing out, didn't really think about that." You admitted with a shrug as, finally, the man up on the roof seemed to come down from the tension he'd been holding throughout this meeting, nodding slightly as he walked along the edge of the roof to get ever so slightly closer while still maintaining his advantage in distance and height.  
  
"... Why are you here exactly, kid?" The man asked, finally, looking down at you from his perch. You shrugged your shoulders ever so slightly at that, pointing on over at the car.  
  
"Well I picked up a bit of information that there was this care chase going on near here that got away, so I thought, you know, try to look around and find out where they are and see if I could catch them. You know, normal superhero stuff." You said with a slight grin at the line; normal superhero stuff. That such a phrase was possible when describing your life was still so out there for you.  
  
"I didn't mean it like that. I mean why are you, a young guy who's voice is still cracking, out here in the middle of winter hunting down criminals."  
  
...  
  
"My voice doesn't crack... much..." You muttered to yourself as you tried to roll with it; it really didn't but, damn, this guy must've picked up on it pretty well. You didn't even think you noticed your voice cracking during this conversation. "Anyway... uh, I mean, just doing superhero stuff like I said. I've got what it takes so... you know, why not use it to fight crime and beat up on criminals. Help keep the peace." You waited for the inevitable 'that can't be the reason' or something similar. Someone doubting that something like that alone could really be your reason for being Spider-Man. You were, however, big enough to admit when you were wrong... especially when the Devil spoke up.  
  
"I see." No questioning, no doubting. Just 'I see'. Dude was abnormally trusting for some dark and edgy vigilante type. "Having fun?" You couldn't help yourself; you almost opened up your mouth to speak... almost. Before you paused and closed it, looking up at him.  
  
"I feel like you'll respect me less if I say 'yes'." You admit as the Devil shakes his head, rubbing a hand against his jaw as he started to walk back and forth a bit.  
  
"No... or at least, not exactly. You're a kid; you're bound to think stuff like this is fun, even if it's stupidly dangerous and risky." You frowned a bit at that as he stopped pacing a bit. "Look... I'm not sure what kind of impressions I've been giving through my work, but this isn't exactly something I wanted random teenagers to start picking up as an after school activity."  
  
...  
  
Did he...  
  
Did he think?  
  
Oh.  
  
Oh man this was kind of awkward.  
  
"Well... uh, you can rest assured that this isn't your impression." The man stopped dead in his tracks at that, the Devil looking down at you as you scratched at the back of your neck. "I uh... you know, I was actually thinking more about... you know... Iron Man."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
You watched as The Devil of Hell's Kitchen, a vigilante in the news in New York City for months now, a man who's violent putdown of criminals you now paid witness to the aftermath of... rubbed at his temples, fingers over his mask.  
  
"Of course it was Stark... that explains way more..." The man shook his head at that, continuing to look down at you... though he stopped looming over you from the rooftop and instead took a seat on the edge of it. He was still above you but the gesture didn't seem quite so daunting. "Look... kid, why are you doing this?" What? You'd already been through this right?  
  
"It's like I said, I-"  
  
"I don't mean like that. I mean... why are you doing this instead of something else. Something more responsible for a kid your age. Look... you're clearly not like these guys here. You've clearly got more between your ears than these goons who's most prized skill is their ability to beat their knuckles bloody on some poor innocent bastard who happens to cross their path randomly. Your tech, whatever you're using to help you do the things you do, is clearly well made and... well, you've got a new costume. Looks like you made it from scratch unlike the last one."  
  
"Oh uh, thanks for noticing actually. I did, I know the last one must've looked pretty amateur but..." You realized that given what your costume was, exactly, that calling it amateur might've come off as an insult to the Devil of Hell's Kitchen considering-  
  
"Was a bunch of random articles of clothing put together to form a general disguise. Like mine." Right, that. Well at least he didn't seem unhappy with the put down.  
  
"Though you arguably went for the stealthier color scheme." You quipped as you scratched the back of your head. "Still, yeah, all that's true but what's your point then? All that just helps me be better at fighting crime, putting these guys away."  
  
"You're a kid, you shouldn't be worrying about that kind of thing. Especially if you got the brains and the skill to be making your own costumes and making tech to do it. You're not some brick who needs to go out picking fights with other idiots in his free time. You sound like you got way better things to be doing. Kids your age... [you could be at home studying. Getting smart](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/3/32/Jack-Matt-Murdock-First-Aid.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150412205606) so you don't end up plugging your entire life away just beatin' on people and getting beat on. I mean, you've got stuff on you that can make you flip around, swing through the air and all this stuff and you're putting it and the brain behind it to use just crackin' skulls."  
  
...  
  
You... didn't exactly agree with that. You understood it sure but, well, it just didn't click with how you thought about this. You had superpowers, people needed help and you'd been fighting crime. You could understand what he was getting at generally but...  
  
"I mean, you don't exactly sound like some thug yourself." You said, pointing up at him. "Don't you have better things you could be doing too, in that case or is there an age limit on having better things to do besides beating people up?" The Devil chuckled, although far from amused he seemed... sardonic, looking off to the side as he shook his head.  
  
"I don't kid. I really don't. I'm not up here because I aimed for it, because I wanted it or because it just seemed like the best thing for me to do... I'm here because I'm too far gone to be anywhere else at this point. I'm here because I can see under these guys' skin. I can see what they're really made of; the stuff they try to hide through crocodile tears and appeals to your better nature. I see a lot of them are guys perfectly willing to murder you for a sandwich if the mood strikes them. Willing to hold you up for your wallet even if they've got more money than they know what to do with. Ready to beat you and break you if you cross them in any way shape or form till you're a stain on the sidewalk...  
  
"You swing around the city and you fight crime and, even now, you're cracking jokes. The crooks in the news reports say you don't shut up... do you think about the fact that while you're cracking jokes these people are trying to put you in the hospital. Maybe the morgue if they get lucky?"  
  
"Well... sure but it's not like-"  
  
"One stray bullet. One missed step. You're not invincible kid. Don't go making that mistake and thinkin' you are. You're taking a risk every time you go out like this that you're not going home at the end of the night. That you're not gonna go see your family or wake up in the morning. For what? Because it just seems like the thing to do with what you got? Kid... this is a huge responsibility. The biggest; not only for the people you're fighting, not only for the people you're tryin' to help... but for you. You're risking everything on the idea that you won't ever get unlucky. Won't ever get a bullet between the eyes or a knife in the ribs. Adults like me or the police... we grow up, we decide to take on that kind of responsibility when we've made our choices. Even if we get shoved into them, we still make them.  
  
"You though? You have your whole life ahead of you. Kids, like you, should be home with your family. Building up your future to be better than these guys here. It ain't your responsibility to just go around clocking criminals and beating up on folks like you're some idiot with nothing else going for him. Your responsibility is to make sure you have a future for yourself and you still have that chance. You shouldn't waste it by fighting thugs like these guys who had that same choice but didn't know better themselves." The Devil shook his head as he continued. "Don't be like me... and God in Heaven, don't be like Tony Stark. He's got a mind for tech and he's using it to assuage a guilty conscience... you can put your mind to something better. You got that opportunity. Don't waste it."  
  
...  
  
This wasn't exactly the conversation you imagined you were going to have with the black-clad ninja in Hell's Kitchen. Heck you hadn't really expected much of a conversation with him at all with how guarded and tense he started out when he saw you. Still... it was some pretty heavy stuff he was throwing down, you weren't gonna lie.

"I..." You start but a small pit in your stomach forces you to stop. You got the feeling deep down in you that, if you were being honest, Uncle Ben would probably agree with what he was saying, agree with his intentions here. It... really didn't make you feel good to admit it but, hey, you had to be honest right? Still you did your best to shake off that feeling, to just let it sink on out, before you continued on. "Look... yeah, you're right. I started this as a hobby because, yeah, the idea of being a superhero was a fun one... heck, it is fun. Being Spider-Man is fun to me. Not even just in a 'doing good and being a hero is fun' sort of way either. Swinging through the air, beating up bad guys, making my quips; it's thrilling and exciting and amazing and, yeah, I get wrapped up in that a lot. Maybe more than I should but, well." You shrugged, scratching at the back of your neck before continuing.  
  
"The thing is though... well, ever since I became Spider-Man and the more and more I've fought crime, the more I've seen situations and people whose lives would've gone worse if I wasn't the one swinging around out there. People would've lost everything they owned, crooks would've peddled drugs on the street, lives could've been ruined over and over again. That's not even the worst of it; people could've gotten hurt and not lightly either. I mean seriously injured or... or worse, dead. Especially that day on Thanksgiving." You pointed up to the man, dressed all in black, as you posed the Devil his own question. "I mean, you tell me; if I hadn't been there to stop Vulture, then who would have... or, Heck, better question; who _could have stopped Vulture?"_ The look on the Devil's face narrowed a bit, a frown forming as he stroked at his chin.  
  
"That's all fine and good but it isn't your responsibility to put that kind of crap on your shoulders. You're a kid; the police, the army, the city, the mayor, Toomes? They're adults; it's not your job or your responsibility to clean up their messes. It's not about what _you_ needed to do."  
  
"Maybe it isn't but I can't exactly say I'd feel comfortable knowing I could do something and then standing by and just letting it happen, especially if people's lives were at stake." You see Daredevil's jaw clench a bit, the man heaving a rough breath as he shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Well in that case, congratulations, you beat the Vulture and stopped him from killing anyone. The guy who ripped off Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane's gimmick is gone and the government probably isn't going to let something like that back out again. I think you can afford to retire now that you've been beating up on street level criminals." You frowned at that, putting your hands on your hips as you looked up at him.  
  
"Even if we don't ever see another Vulture again, these street level criminals are still dangerous. Just because I'm a kid doesn't make that less true... after all, you're taking the fight to them for a reason." You sighed as you shook your head; this was getting nowhere fast. "Look... I can tell you mean well. Really, I appreciate the concern and you've given me a lot to think about. At the end of the day, however, it's my decision and I'll be the one to make it in the end. Spider-Man or not. So... thanks for the advice but I'm going to have to pass for now." The Devil of Hell's Kitchen shook his head, clearly frustrated with the answer. However before the two of you could continue on with this discussion police sirens, slowly but surely, started to echo in the distance. You both glanced off in their direction, the Devil sighing.  
  
"Looks like someone finally decided to call the cops..." He bit his lip as he said this, looking back down at you for a moment. Finally he sighed, shaking his head as he... extended out the club he was using? "Fine. I can't stop you from making that mistake. I can only reiterate what I said before; I've got this covered." He waved his club around, gesturing to all of Hell's Kitchen. "So move along." You frowned as he watched him break into a dead sprint, running off and jumping across rooftop as he sprinted off into the distance. You just sighed and shook your head before firing off a Webline, swinging off into the distance yourself...  
  
Well, this could've turned out better... then again you suppose it could've turned out a lot worse. You weren't lying when you said that he'd given you a lot to think about. However, equally, you weren't lying when you said this was your choice to make and, for right now, you were going to make it as Spider-Man. Whether the Devil of Hell's Kitchen approved or not.


	41. Twas The Weekend Before Christmas

"So... how's break going so far? I'm guessing business is starting to ramp up on your end now that we're so close to Christmas?"  
  
_"Yeah. Dad's got a lot of stuff set up before and after our own Holiday Time coming up next week so it's been a pretty hectic past couple days. Let me tell you, it's hard to realize just how many people my dad talks to or who want to talk to him for one reason or another until some big party or event rolls around and suddenly we're swamped by well wishers."_  
  
It had been a while since you and Harry had gotten into a serious back and forth email chain. The first had really been when Harry had deigned to first send you an email in order to start up this little repertoire you two had developed and, after that, things had slowed down considerably. Part of it was what Harry had been hinting at in this email you'd read over; that his dad's business was starting to get super busy as the peak of the Holiday season rolled in and so, as his son and heir to his business, Harry was getting roped in as well. The other was just that you and Harry had been having far more casual email discussions since then. It was actually kind of funny; you were having a casual email a day back and forth with Harry Osborn of all people. Considering his status you knew for a fact that a lot of people would kill for that but, for the two of you, it was just kind of the casual start to being acquaintances.  
  
But yeah; ever since that first email exchange it'd been pretty relaxed. It had only been today when Harry had followed up his previous email by sending you another one that you got the feeling that he finally had more time to actually sit down and get into a more detailed discussion over emails. You know, you had always wanted a penpal you supposed. You had just always thought that said penpal would be, you know, in another state or a whole other country. You didn't expect a penpal to be right here in New York City. Then again, you were rapidly learning that life was funny like that and it could throw any number of things at you that you'd never have expected.  
  
"Man I bet. I can only imagine that it seems like they start crawling out of the woodwork the moment it's time for some party or something. Like the zombies in some kind of 'the Dead' movie." You fire back, waiting for a moment before a quick response is uttered.  
  
_"Never seen any of them._ " Oh this poor soul. Another email was quickly fired off. _"But yeah, zombies really do describe them. Like you'll never believe it Peter; it's like everyone wants a piece of our family when time for the holidays roll around. Granted, I get why for some of them. Like during the holidays especially a lot of charities and folks who represent them approach my dad talking about possible donations. It's actually really nice to hear their causes and stuff and dad's usually pretty pleasant about inviting them to talk business in a more private setting. I don't usually get brought in but dad usually ends up cutting some pretty big checks either himself or on behalf of Oscorp."_  
  
"Well that's nice of him." You couldn't say you were surprised; someone with money like Osborn could easily use the good PR being charitable brought and, hey, charities needed money to help people. It made enough sense as a transaction.  
  
_"Then there's the folks who want to do business with my dad or what his support for politics, you know. The usual kind of stuff you imagine people hitting up a rich guy for. What really gets me around this time of year isn't people like that though. It's the people who use my dad like some kind of punching bag whenever they're writing in a paper or talking out and about during debates or public appearances. They're rag on Oscorp or on my dad runs his business but when he throws a party or attends one even they're suddenly all smiles and talking about how they don't really mean anything too harsh about it. 'Constructive criticism' they say before offering to interview him or wanting to talk shop with him about their campaigns."_  
  
"Wow, sound like a bunch of stellar folks." You say with a roll of your eyes; you probably should've felt more surprised than you did but you could easily see that. Money had a way of doing that to people.  
  
_"Oh yeah, totally! I mean, even folks like Obadiah Stane back before he went nuts and died in that fight with Iron Man would usually find his way over to some Oscorp party to try and talk business."_  
  
That honestly did surprise you.  
  
"For real? That's surprising. Oscorp and Stark Industries were competitors and Oscorp got more and more interested in expanding into the tech business and away from pharmaceuticals. Tony Stark didn't exactly have a lot of warm fuzzies about it in public. Neither did Stane, for that matter."  
  
_"Wow you really know your stuff Peter."_ You blushed at that as you grinned, typing in the new message.  
  
"What can I say, I've always tried to keep up to date on tech and science news and... well, when the field trips were originally being planned I really wanted to go to Stark Industries HQ here in New York." You hoped Harry wouldn't take that much offense to it.  
  
_"I feel ya, I feel ya. Makes enough sense. Anyway, yeah; publicly that was what happened and as much as my dad doesn't exactly like Tony Stark, he at least respected that he stuck by his word in public about not being interested. I'm not around my dad a lot, per say, but I've learned his tells for when he's talking to someone he doesn't really like or respect that much. Whenever Stane would come around and start walking back either his or Tony Stark's public remarks and offering to go into business my dad would, you know, do his best to be polite. Still, I could see how much contempt he had for someone like Stane and, well, all things considered I think my dad nailed it when it came to Stane. He's a good judge of character like that."_  
  
Well you couldn't exactly disagree that Mr. Osborn had called it on Stane, in that case.

Okay, you had to admit, this was a bit too much of a coincidence for you to ignore. Norman Osborn happened to know two engineers in high places in various industries who happened to go nuts, made flying tech suits and then tried to attack or kill a leader in the industry in order to advance their own career. As much as you understood the potential complexity of what was going on behind the scenes with Norman, at least according to Liz, you couldn't deny that the fact that he'd apparently called this on Stane would be an interesting insight into Toomes...  
  
Not to mention that hearing Harry tell something about how that went down would also be nice.  
  
"Okay, I have to ask because the parallels are too similar for me to really ignore. How did your dad feel about Toomes?" You fired off the email quickly, sending it flying. You waited for a response and, well, it ended up taking a little more time before you ended up getting a response back.  
  
_"I guess this was bound to come up sooner or later... and I guess I can see the connection with Stane."_ Oof, he actually even took the time to add the ellipses into the text of the email. Still, you've come too far forward now to really back off.  
  
"I just figure that it'd be crazy if he were two for two on insane people in high tech flying suits..." You quickly fired off the email and, just as quickly, received another one.  
  
_"Yeah, I guess it is... though, that wasn't necessarily hard in this case. Give me a few for me to type this out."_ You nodded and sat back, waiting and doing some other work you had laying around as you waited for Harry to send the next email or round of emails. It actually ended up taking a fair bit longer than you might've expected and while you did want to listen to him and just wait you were sorely tempted to send an email asking if everything was alright. Ten minutes later and just before you could Harry's first email came through.  
  
_"Okay so... it's different than with Stane. Stane at least acted like a reasonable, measured adult you know? Plus it's not like my dad disliked him because he thought he was crazy. He disliked Stane because the guy, in his eyes, was kind of a two-faced, spineless coward. He'd raise up this bluster and huge stink in public settings or whenever Tony Stark was around but, whenever it was just Stane and my folks the guy did a complete turn around. He'd go from saying that Oscorp had nothing to offer Stark Industries and that any attempt to compete with the company was bound to go down in defeat for my dad in public to crowing about how much good that the two companies could do together and how they could be a market dominating force, especially with Stark Industries Weapons Tech being partnered with Oscorp advances in pharmaceuticals. He'd never want to bring Tony Stark in on it either, insisting that something could be worked out and then presented to Stark as a fait accompli.  
  
"Dad says that you do have to act more polite with competitors and other people in your industry face to face compared to on the cameras, sure, but Stane wasn't just being more polite he was basically entirely flipping his script. Dad basically never trusted a word that came out of Stane's mouth... but it was still a huge surprise to see him do what he did with that whole Iron Monger suit thing. No one saw that coming...  
  
"By comparison, in hindsight Toomes seemed mentally unstable and crazy right from the start."_  
  
Oof. That was a bit of a punch, especially considering Liz's version of events... but considering that you saw the man piloting the Vulture Suit himself it wasn't like you had much room to disagree.  
  
_"I can't get too much into the business but when Tony Stark shut down the weapons program all those months ago my dad really wanted to move into the industry as Oscorp's first major expansion. A major hole had been blown open in the market and my dad wanted to use the opportunity to expand Oscorp's portfolio, so the started bringing aboard all these engineers and scientists from a whole lot of different fields. A team of engineers ended up developing... well, what Toomes would refer to in his rants to the press you've been hearing as 'Glider Tech'. I'm not 100% sure on what it does myself but it's supposed to be pretty fancy as far as flight."_  
  
A hovering propulsion based system that didn't rely on turbines, if what Liz said was accurate.  
  
"Okay but how does Toomes come into that then if this is just something one of your dad's science teams developed?" You shot back and, eventually, the next stage of Harry's email came forward.  
  
_"Getting to that. Anyway, so news of Glider Tech must've gotten out through some employees; Glider Tech has been kept pretty far under wraps, such that the official name for it at Oscorp hasn't even been released. Tony Stark tends to have a way of seeing previews of designs and then iterating on them himself. Guy's crazy smart like that. Someone inside Oscorp must've gotten work out because, out of nowhere, Toomes storms into Oscorp's offices and just starts raising Hell. He's screaming and yelling at people demanding to see someone, specifically my dad, and raving about how we stole this design from him. You've seen the conferences involving him by now."_  
  
Yeah... the reports showing Toomes yelling about Oscorp stealing tech that, records show, was never even his to begin with didn't do a lot for the guy's public look. If he looked like that in Oscorp's office building then that probably did put people on edge.  
  
_"More likely than not, my dad thinks that maybe Toomes had some kind of theoretical design work done but that it never got beyond the design phase. He says that Toomes was a mover in the industry but that his last big project was the Toomes Fighter Aircraft that's been on the line for nearly a decade now. That the guy's been riding off of that and was probably looking to attach himself to something new in order to keep himself relevant. So dad and the other folks at Oscorp basically forced him off and accepted a police investigation to show that nothing was amiss and then... well, you were at the field trip."_  
  
Yeah, yeah you were.

You know... under ordinary circumstances you'd be pretty inclined to believe this. It makes a lot of sense; Oscorp hasn't been shy about bringing in new talent to expand the number of fields it produces for in terms of goods and services and it's not like these sorts of issues didn't crop up in the sciences from time to time. Plus the fact that you saw how Tomes behaved in that metal costume and knew what kind of person he was... yeah, you'd be pretty inclined to believe this. The only problem, as ever, was the fact that Liz got kidnapped. The fact that someone stole Liz away so blatantly but didn't seem to mean her harm. Instead seemed to just want to hold her hostage if Liz was any indication. Plus the perspective that Liz brought to this story was interesting in and of itself.  
  
There had to be something more to the story. Even _if_ Liz's perspective was colored by the fact that her dad was a major source of information for her on the invention, even if that part of the story was 100% true on Oscorp's part, it didn't satisfactorily explain why Liz was taken or what it had to do with this entire situation. You would never tell Harry any of them of course; you'd be all but accusing his dad of being involved in a kidnapping with not a lot of proof except what Liz expected. Still, what happened to Liz showed that, whatever the real version of the story was, there was more to it than what Harry's dad and Oscorp could let out there.  
  
"I figured it was something like that." You started, looking to move beyond this bit as you shook your head. "Thanks for answering, man. Sorry if this was a bit awkward. The topic just seemed relevant and well... Vulture still pops up in my mind occasionally." You sent the message, waiting for Harry to respond as the time slowly ticked by after sending your email.  
  
_"Yeah, I get it. Trust me, if anyone can understand still thinking of Toomes, it'd be us. Plus, like I said, I kind of expect it; it's a big story and my family were smack dab in the center of it. You get used to this kind of stuff when your dad's famous."_ You frowned slightly at that, the tone of the email reading a bit exhausted compared to other emails Harry had sent. _"Anyway, the talk was fun man but I should probably get back to focusing on the last of our plans. Plus talking about Toomes is just exhausting. Catch you later Peter."_  
  
"Catch you later, Harry." You responded, closing your email as you rested your head in your hand. You could only imagine how exhausting it was for Harry to revisit all of this. His dad nearly got seriously hurt or, worse, killed in all of this and now it was a big curiosity in New York. While you might've felt a little bad for piling on... well, you had to know what that side of the story was. Spider-Man had to know. Hopefully, now, you could take comfort in that and work on whatever else you had in mind without pestering Harry too much about it.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"Alright so you're going to have to do your best to memorize a lot of this stuff Peter because, for real, this is the safest way for me to handle a lot of these passwords and I can't really afford to write them down."  
  
"Gotcha Ned, I'll listen closely in order to memorize them, it's cool."  
  
Your best friend nodded as he quickly turned around, grabbing a notepad he'd prepared from off of his desk as he started looking it over. Ned had ended up placing a message to you telling you that the project he'd been working on for the both of you had been ready to move on to the next step and that he needed your input on it. It didn't exactly take long for you to realize that Ned was just being indirect and talking about the recent ideas concerning the proxies and passwords you'd both discussed some odd weeks back. Excited, and also a little nervous, you'd rushed on over to Ned's house in order to see what was what.  
  
After searching through numerous online proxy servers that were free, including sites with such 'clever' names as 'hidemyass', 'hideme' and 'hidester' of all things Ned had settled on a proxy that a few people he knew on some online message boards had recommended to him as being solid in terms of service and in terms of secrecy. Nothing they'd ever gone through on there had come back to bite them and so, it was hoped, that Ned's activities supporting you as the guy in the chair would go unnoticed as he searched about and continued to spy in on the police's broadcasts online. He'd also taken to coming up with several passwords for various services you both would be employing and, indeed, had basically password locked not only his profile on his computer but also several files on his computer.  
  
Today wasn't just about filling you in on the details about the proxy, it was about giving you the passwords for his stuff in case he ever needed you to get something or quickly delete something while he was busy. Very sensible, you had to say.  
  
"Alright so for my phone I didn't want to go for any obvious pattern so I just picked up a random number generator and came up with 6197 so remember that. 6 - 1 - 9 - 7." You nodded at that, clapping your hands together as Ned turned over to his computer. "Next up, the password to my whole computer. Got a whole bunch of these for a few folders I've stashed but I ended up deciding on one for my entire computer too."  
  
"Gotta say Ned I'm kind of impressed you're willing to go this far." Ned smiled as he shrugged.  
  
"Well it's not like I haven't done it before. Got a password on my homework folder in case my mom ever ends up on my computer." You blinked, looking at your friend curiously.  
  
"Why would you have a password on your homework folder?"  
  
"You don't wanna know." Ned said, simply, as he quickly logged out of his profile, returning to the front end of the pc. "Alright, now let me just plug this bad boy in and I'll tell you..." Ned's fingers quickly clicked and clacked across the keyboard, punching in a password before hitting enter... which gave a negative result, the PC not logging in to Ned's profile.  
  
"... Hey Ned. How many passwords do you have on this computer now anyway?"  
  
"... Three or four. One for the folder I use to keep the address I punch in for the police scanners bookmarked, one for some of our general Spidey-stuff and one for the maps I've been making... and now the front page." Your friend sweat for a moment as he punched in another password which, in the end, produced another failure.  
  
"... You mixed them up didn't you?" Ned sat there for a moment, deep in thought before he punched in another password; this time, to both of your reliefs.  
  
"Phew! Close one." Ned said with a laugh as he shook his head. "Might have to remake these passwords with different numbers of symbols so that I can keep them straight in my head... in which case I'll save that for another time and just show you how the proxy works." You nodded at that, grinning a bit as Ned started booting up his browser to show off the proxy.  
  
"Man this is gonna be good. So what kind of stuff will this allow us to do? I know it's gonna make you more safe when doing the stuff you already do but is there anything else we could do that we couldn't do before? Like, I dunno, running a Twitter or something? It'd make it convenient for people to tweet in stuff to us." Ned nodded his head, though with a slight frown.  
  
"It would make it pretty convenient if we could get people to do that... but sadly we're really not going to be able to do that even with a proxy." You blinked at that, looking over at your best friend.  
  
"I guess that makes sense; if we bring attention to ourselves, proxy or not, people could probably look back in through us with more focus right?" Ned shrugged a bit.  
  
"Well there is that though that's not even the main thing; it's not even having to sign up with an email or a name and address. We can fake that and make a throwaway email dedicated to just blowing that requirement off but it's more..." Ned rubbed his chin for a bit, your large friend humming to himself in thought before turning back to look at you. "What do you remember about the Shoplifting Fandom on Tumblr from a few years back?"  
  
Hmmmm...

"Eh, I know a little about it, I guess?" You basically knew about as much as the name implied; that there were groups of Tumblr blogs dedicated to being fans of and sharing stories or tips about shoplifting and the best way to carry it out. It... well, it sounded seriously stupid, in your opinion. Still, maybe it was more complex than just the name and your bare guess could latch onto? "Is it as stupid as it sounds?"  
  
"If it sounds like a bunch of people blasting out publicly that they're committing crimes or interested in committing crimes then yeah, it's as stupid as it sounds Pete." You nodded at that as Ned turned around in his chair, bringing up a few articles here and there about it. "So yeah, these guys were all basically sharing stories and video evidence of them committing these crimes online and for the purpose of basically showing off about it. They'd give tips and tricks and even post photos of their 'hauls'. Of course we can't tell how legit these hauls are; it'd be pretty easy to fake it by just taking stuff from around your house or apartment and shoving it in your bag or purse."  
  
"Yeah wouldn't exactly be the hardest thing to fake in the world." You commented idly as Ned nodded, leaning forward in his chair.  
  
"Yeah, but still, some of this stuff was definitely being done and some of these people were 'definitely' advocating for doing crimes. Now, a lot of them were anonymous about it, using accounts pretty well separate from their own identities, so they couldn't be held liable directly. Some were dumb enough to use their own personal accounts with their information and got arrested, of course, but a lot more people were smart about it. I think maybe the hope was that if they just kept their activities quiet enough or secure enough then none of them would get into trouble and they'd be able to keep this stuff up... which, sadly, isn't exactly how it ended up working out."  
  
"Why not? If they're anonymous then there's pretty much no way the police can get to them, right?" Ned nodded, once more, even as your overweight friend brought up another article detailing the blogs being taken down.  
  
"Right, they couldn't, but the sites could be. Now, obviously not every crime that's talked about on a site can get the site in trouble. If you can't verify if people are serious about their declared intent then a site can't really get tagged for illegal activity going on about it. It's why there's basically never been a time when someone's made a 'Don't go to school tomorrow' post on a message board that it hasn't been closed down. There's no proof an actual crime took place linked to that, even if a crime like that does occur the next day.  
  
"With stuff like the Shoplifting Fandom though... well, they were posting evidence of their crimes all over their blogs and re-blogging them constantly. Some of them were fake sure but a solid number more were not only really but had video to back it up. Stuff like this? This is what can get a website in trouble. It's why YouTube pretty much immediately takes down any content that could be labeled terrorist propaganda or other real violent imagery as soon as they can or why, back in the Limewire days, you could get into legal trouble even if something you meant to download, like an album of pictures or a movie, turned out to be kiddie stuff and why Limewire pretty much ended up going down entirely.  
  
"Sites are liable if they allow illegal content or crimes to be posted on them, which is why you've got so many bots going around using algorithms to try and weed this stuff out. So despite the Shoplifting Fandom insisting that, hey, they couldn't get into trouble over this because Tumblr could then the site just ended up shutting down the blogs." You nodded at all of that; that all sounded like it made enough sense.  
  
"I'm guessing all of this applies to Spider-Man too? That why you're bringing it up?" Ned nodded at that, turning to you with a bit of a shrug.  
  
"Yeah, basically. Like it or not, Spider-Man's a criminal in the eyes of pretty much every authority on the planet. He's a vigilante who's breaking the law and being pretty flagrant about it. Anything we'd do online like Twitter or a Patreon for example would pretty much have that front and center as part of the whole deal. So, taking the other examples, that would basically put Patreon, and therefore Paypal, or Twitter as liable for giving your vigilantism a platform in order to advertise itself or to make money off of itself. Because those sites would be liable then they'd immediately shut you down and do their best to report what information they could to the authorities which... well, considering the kind of information you need for some sites these days it'd be hard to fake. Can't exactly have a Paypal or a Patreon without a debit card or bank for the money to end up going to."  
  
"So even with the proxies it wouldn't really matter that much when it comes to sites with platforms; even if we can perfectly hide who we are... the sites would still take us down just because we'd be putting them in a position where they're liable for us." You remarked, frowning slightly at that as Ned nodded his head.  
  
"That's the short version, yeah."

You heaved an airy sigh as you placed a hand against your forehead, a dour expression on your face, or about as dour as you can fake it, selling the gesture as you glance off to the side. "My dream of a Spider-Patreon... dead before I can even articulate it. Woe is me and my wallet." Ned laughed at that as you smirked, scratching the back of your head after the little show. If you were being real you never really did expect to make much money off of something like this, if at all. Like Ned said you were effectively a criminal... a criminal who didn't do crime that enriched himself. That pretty much cut off any and all paths to money that Spider-Man could make himself. He was a vigilante who flagrantly broke the law and wouldn't commit a crime to enrich yourself either. So money was off the table from the beginning.  
  
This... eh, this just felt more like reality matching your expectations and showing that, yeah, that was the case.  
  
"Well hey, don't feel too bad. On the plus side you get all the free publicity you want from the news." You snorted at that, rolling your eyes as he clipped Ned across the shoulder, causing him to give a quick yelp as he rubbed it while you nodded.  
  
"Yeah, and I suppose the old saying goes that there's no such thing as bad publicity, right?"  
  
...  
  
"What a load."  
  
"Seriously." You both had a good laugh at that as you pointed back to the screen. "So no money but, bottom line, we're safer now?"  
  
"Yeah. Suppose I should get back to actually explaining this stuff to you so that you know what to do on your phone or on my computer if I'm ever unavailable." You nodded at that as you bent down to Ned's level again, quickly watching as he went to work on his own phone and his PC in order to show you the ins and outs of the system. All in all you were really glad to have brought Ned on board; even if you weren't tech illiterate Ned knew his way around systems like this and, if you were being honest, having someone else around who could handle that while you focused on the hardcore, down and dirty superhero stuff was just nice. Freed you up and meant that you had someone watching your back who knew how to, especially as it concerned the internet.  
  
...  
  
Still, only one proxy though. Hopefully one day you'd have the kind of money to set up even more.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
[_T'was the weekend before Christmas_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOm8m1aue2Y)  
_And all through the city  
The people were in a hurry  
For the weather was shitty  
  
With sleet and snow  
And hail and ice  
The people of New York  
Had no reason to feel nice  
  
The cars sat in traffic  
Their heaters were blaring  
While the blasts of wind  
Left pedestrians swearing  
  
But while the people were dour  
And planned death for a weatherman  
Up above between the buildings  
Swung that there Spider-Man  
  
"Well look on the bright side" he cried  
A flurry nearly blowing his hat  
"The beard helps make my face warm"  
Even if it was a bit small for much more than that  
  
As he swung and he leaped  
All through the skyline  
He kept an eye out for crime  
So that the evening could be fine  
  
"The people of this city-"  
He started with a shout  
"Deserve a peaceful Holiday Season,  
Of that I have no doubt!"  
  
So he continued to swing through  
His Webbing rigid and cold  
When suddenly he heard-_  
  
"YOU ALL BETTER SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!"  
  
Ah jeez. Well that ruined the Christmas spirit for you. You were doing such a good job of making the rhyme work in your head too. Such a pity. Still, sounded like you had a job to do. So you quickly secured your hat on your head again and began to swing down, looking to get a better look at where the sudden shout had come from. As you landed on a nearby wall you crawled along, eyes peeled through your mask as you looked over at a nearby store...  
  
Oh. A liquor store and it was being robbed by two creeps with guns, one pointed at the clerk behind the counter and the other one lowered as he tried to load up a sack with booze... and... one of them was wearing a Santa mask and the other an elf mask?  
  
OUTRAGEOUS!  
  
You weren't about to be out-Christmas'd by crooks! Especially ones who were wanting to get boozed up! How could they sully the good image of Santa Claus like that?  
  
You needed a plan to punish these guys for going on the naughty list.

Welp, time for these guys ho-ho-holiday to get a little ho-ho-horrible. You readjusted your hat and beard and fired off a line of Webbing, quickly zipping over to just above the entrance of the liquor store. A quick readjustment using your Wall Crawling and you position yourself just above the door, looking down inside. Looks like they didn't spot you thanks to the weather outside and your positioning. Nice. With only the very slightest breath to steady yourself you quickly shove the door open, the bell ringing quickly as you do so. Before they can really react you fire off a Webline and tag the gun of the guy threatening the cashier.  
  
"Hey, before I beat the snot out of you two I should probably check to see if this is an elaborate scheme to save a sick child's Christmas. It'd be a crying shame if Tiny Tim ran out of booze money this Christmas." You yank the gun out of the guy's hand easily, catching it in your own as you kept yourself stuck to the area above the door with just your feet.  
  
"Spider-Man?!" The two goons cried out as they saw you... though, they sounded less scared and more... confused?  
  
"Ah, you must be taking in the new attire. For today I am not Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Vigilante. I'm Spidey Claus, Jolly Hero of the Holidays!" You fire off another line of Webbing, snagging the other crook's gun and dumping them both outside before you effortlessly flipped inside of the liquor store, landing just in front of the door so that neither crook could make an easy escape. "By the way, you-" You quickly pointed out the guy in the Santa mask, "-look, one of us is going to have to change and, I'm just saying, it's not gonna be me."  
  
"God dammit, get him!" One of the crooks quickly appropriated a bottle of liquor to use as a club while the other ran at you with just his fists. Two swings and, well, they both gave it an honest effort, you would at least give them that. Not that they both didn't horribly miss you but, hey, par for the course for most crooks really.  
  
"What's this? Seasons Beatings without so much as a gift card? Man, you two do know how to make a guy feel unappreciated... still, guess this means I have to give you guys a gift back too, huh?"  
  
The two of them put up... well, not a valiant effort but, hey, an effort. The guy with the booze bottle ends up taking a good solid few shots to the gut and chest as you swung around, nimbly avoiding his arms attempt to push you away or to move so as to take advantage of an attempt to dodge out of the way. In the end you don't quite drop him by the time you've almost assuredly left a few bruises for him to remember you by so you go ahead and leave him to turn your attention to his friend who, by now, seems to be really regretting his life choices. You swing one and he ducks under your fist; before he really has the chance to laugh at you a quick knee ends up being driven into his gut, causing him to cough as he stands straight up before a shot to his sternum forces all the breath from his lungs.  
  
...  
  
And there he goes, catching his breath way too late as he falls over from the force of the hit. You look over at the other guy, looking bit loose on his feet himself from the effort of standing up after several hard body shots and-  
  
"Timber!" You watch the guy collapse on the ground like a fallen Christmas Tree, quickly snatching the bottle of booze out of his hand before it can shatter on the ground. You heaved a sigh, dusting your hands off after a good job well done as you looked over at the cashier, the young woman fixing you with a nervous, surprised look.

You grinned under your mask, doing your best to give a friendly and welcoming feeling to this whole thing as you, for a short moment, juggled the bottle in your hand, tossing around the makeshift weapon in the crooks' attempt to beat the snot out of you.  
  
"You know, I normally hate the idea of re-gifting on Christmas but, man, this one seems perfect for you." You quickly hand the bottle back to the young woman, her hands jostling with it for a moment before you turned to Web up the two crooks. Their bodies secure you quickly turned your Web Shooters, setting in a new cartridge with the revolver system before you stepped back outside. "Happy Holidays, Miss!" You declared as you fired off a Webline.  
  
"Ah... uh, Merry Christmas?" The young woman just barely stammered out as you quickly launched yourself into the air, swinging about as you felt the Christmas Spirit moving through you.  
  
_"OOOOOOOOOOOH~  
  
Spidey Bells, criminals smell,  
  
I catch them anyway!  
  
The Spider-mobile doesn't exist,  
  
but hopefully somedaaaaaaaaaaaaay~!"_

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
"Hey listen kid, I gotta thank you again for this. The weather changed so suddenly and, boy, when I went outside I didn't know what hit us."  
  
"Uh... yeah no problem..."  
  
"Glad I ended up picking up your number though. You know I tried calling other kids and they whined and complained that they couldn't get here because of the weather. But look at you! Your Uncle talks about your health but you're being a good enough kid to come by and help an older fella out with this little problem."  
  
Little... right.  
  
"Hey it's no problem. I mean, hey, you're paying me after all..."  
  
"Haha, guess I am at that! Well, no rush kid, work's pretty much zonked out for the day anyway so you have time to get this done right. I'll pay you when you're done getting me in a good position." You stared on at the driveway, easily a foot and a half, if not two feet of snow, having been dumped on the ground and on top of the guy's car. It was practically buried... and you were called in to dig it out and dig a way through for his car to get to the main road which, itself, was barely shoveled by the round-the-clock snowplows the city had going.  
  
You'd agreed to this before you realized just how bad the previous night's weather had been but... well... uh... hey.  
  
It'd probably be your biggest payday yet, right?  
  
...  
  
God help you, you weren't even sure if your Super Strength would keep you from getting winded with all this snow.


	42. A Very Parker Christmas

You let loose a breath, fog flying past and dispersing behind you as you swung through the air through a neighborhood in The Bronx. The Christmas Spirit, despite the cold, continued to run through you as you had a little [song in your heart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3UA160-ZI) and, of course, the Spidey Claus attire at the ready. The beard and hat were back on; today would pretty much be the last day you could reasonably wear them and not look... well, you'd still look tacky but it was okay to look tacky for Christmas. All this helped to keep your head warm while the rest of your body was snugly bundled in your costume and your thermals as you took a pass through The Bronx. It was Christmas Even morning and while you were ordinarily more up for hitting the town towards the afternoon or evening so you could get a little more cover when it came to swinging around without being easily seen in the daytime light, you had to make an exception for today.  
  
Christmas Eve and Christmas was going to be spent with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, you'd decided. Spider-Man was going to take a holiday starting this evening so you could enjoy some proper festivities. God knows that with no Supervillain running around you didn't really have a reason to interrupt the holiday festivities with your family like you did during Thanksgiving. Plus Christmas was always a more personal holiday for the Parker household; you could have guests over sure but when dinner time came it was just the three of you enjoying a nice little feast. So if you were going to get any patrolling in and done with around this time of the week, it had to be early.  
  
You yawned a bit because of that, patting your mouth. Honestly if it weren't for the bizarre fact that statistics Ned looked up showed that crime actually went up around the holiday instead of dropping you'd probably have just spent the entire day with Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Still, the statistics didn't show that and considering how few trips you took to The Bronx you figured the best Christmas gift you could give as Spider-Man was showing a little love to New York's roughest borough.  
  
So it was that you continued to swing about, looking for any sign of that heightened crime as you pass on through. You decided you'd stick around areas where people would be moving in high volume through the city; while Christmas Eve might've seemed a little late for it people were still rushing about trying to get some Christmas Shopping done. Either they were looking for last minute deals on hot items for their kids or their significant others, they had been lazy and waited till literally the last minute or, kind of sadly, they were so busy that they could literally only get the free time to go shopping now of all times. Thankfully, you didn't have to deal with that; Amazon was quick for timely deliveries so you got Ned's present sorted almost immediately and, for Aunt May and Uncle Ben, you'd managed to quickly purchase a card while on the way to your Patrol and place it, carefully, in your backpack for later.  
  
You had a plan for their Christmas gift that didn't really require shopping. Hopefully they'd like it or, at the very least, would appreciate the card. Until you saw that through however your own shopping was done.  
  
But you got it; some people just didn't either trust online shipping or preferred to hunt around for deals in person. It was stubborn but, hey, you could understand it. Eventually you ended up taking a quick stop on the corner of a nearby building overlooking a small mall's parking lot. You shivered as you sat down, rubbing your arms a bit as you turned to pull your backpack off of your back. You reached in and pulled out a thermos, quickly pouring yourself a nice hot cup of hot cocoa you'd prepared for your Patrol today. You pulled down your beard and pulled up your mask, taking a quick and satisfying sip.  
  
"Aaaah... that's the good stuff." Honestly, you weren't sure what was better; the feeling of something so piping hot hitting your stomach and warming you right to your very core or the chocolate taste hitting your tongue. You shimmied around a bit to get a little more comfortable as you continued to drink, warming yourself back up in preparation to keep on with the patrol. As you looked on at the parking lot you watched as a robust looking man, perhaps in his late forties at best, was meandering on out of the mall, a shopping cart full of little bags and boxes as he moved. Looked like he scored a pretty nice haul by the looks of it; one of them looked about shaped like a TV. Somebody was going to be a pretty happy camper.  
  
As you looked around, though, you noticed a handful of... hmmm, teens, young adults? They looked a few years older than you, at any rate, and probably like they already graduated high school. They stocked along behind the adult, hoods pulled up and scarfs up and wrapped around their faces. You would almost let that slide as just them wanting to keep their heads warm if it wasn't for one of them nodding toward the older guy, the trio of teens separated as they went in on the approach.  
  
"Oh don't tell me they're going to actually go through with it." Robbing a guy for his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve? You knew you'd busted some bad folks like legit drug dealers but that was just Grinch levels of needlessly cruel. Sure enough though, despite your disbelief, they were doing it. One of the three ran up behind the guy and pulled up on the back of his coat, pulling it up and over his head to disorientate him as he gave a short cry. One of the others ran up and knelt down on all fours just beside his feet while the third pushed him over the second, sending the guy flying back onto the ground with a shout that made you wince. They immediately grabbed the cart and made a break for it, a car on the far end of the parking lot screeching as it wheels seemed to get caught in a patch of ice but, by the looks of it, it was another guy around their age behind the wheel...  
  
Oh, and the license plate was even covered up.  
  
"Fantastic." You muttered, putting your thermos back in your backpack and Webbing it to the roof as you got up and dusted the snow off your body, pulling your mask back down and your beard back up.

You took a breath and, despite the situation, had a grin on your face as you fired off a Webline for a lamppost that neighbored the parking lot. Welp, it was time to spread some holiday cheer and some holiday butt whoopings. Who better to accomplish both that good old Spidey Claus?  
  
"HO HO HO!" You loudly declared, leaping off of the roof of the building you'd parked yourself on as you swung for the car. Immediately all eyes were upon you, wide with surprise, as you swung around the back of the car. Ah, another environmentally unfriendly pack of hoodlums! Would these people never learn?  
  
"HO HO HO-LD IT RIGHT THERE, CRIMINALS!" You finish your Christmas battlecry as you took quick aim and fired off a line of Webbing. The shot hit the exhaust pipe dead on, the smoke and steam rising from the exhaust stopping immediately as you could practically hear the oh-so satisfying 'glob' of the Webbing gunking up the back turn of the exhaust. The car's sounds immediately became hoarse and grind-y as, assuredly, exhaust was slowly building up throughout the entire system. It hadn't stalled, yet, but you didn't imagine it wouldn't take long. That done you turned on the rest of the young adults, the trio of them immediately trying their best to burst into a sprint with the cart in hand as they saw you coming.  
  
"HOLY SHIT, CHEESE IT! IT'S THE SPIDER-MAN!"  
  
Aaaaaah. 'The Spider-Man'. That's got a pretty satisfactory ring to it.  
  
In the end with how wet, slushy and icy the parking lot still was the trio of creeps couldn't get too far on foot. They would have to skid for a moment, recover their footing or otherwise go slower than they intended in order to move which, for you and your Web Swinging way up high in the air, was just fine by you! Soon enough you leaped from you Webline, did a quick turn about and then landed on top of the shopping cart, looking the three guys older than you in the eye as you grinned at them.  
  
"Don't tell me, let me guess; high school bullies that miss the thrill of it? I mean, that whole pushing him over thing was just textbook insecure high school vandal if I've ever seen it." You remarked, dryly, as you watched the three of them marvel at you for a moment before-  
  
"SCATTER!" One of the guys shouted as they both immediately bolted away from the cart, leaving you along with attempted thief number three who, rather than running immediately, tried to get you knocked down by pushing the shopping cart over. Tried being the keyword as a quick hop and a few footfalls kept you upright and on top of the shopping cart despite his best efforts, even if the stuff inside did end up scattering on the pavement.  
  
"Ah jeez look at what you did now, who knows what you might've... oh hey, a Switch. Somebody's gonna be a happy camper tomorrow!" You extend out both hands and fire two Weblines as you so casually quipped your way through the fight, tagging the backs of the two schmucks trying to make a break for it and pulling them back to reality as you reeled them in. The continuous, harsh screeching of their would-be getaway car finally gave way to a loud 'POP' as smoke and exhaust erupted from the hood of the beast, the engine sputtering and dying as the other hoodlum inside forced themself out, hacking up a lung from all the smoke that had built up inside before trying to make a break for it in their own direction.  
  
The guy who had just attempted to knock you down a peg by tipping the cart, similarly, decided now was the best time to make a break for it, causing you to roll your eyes.  
  
"Come on guys, just give it up! Hey, if you save me some time I promise I'll only sing the first six days of the Twelve Days of Christmas! Scout's honor!" Okay sure you were never technically a Boy Scout but they didn't need to know that.  
  
Still, you had to hand it to them; these kids were smart enough to just flat out scatter in completely different directions rather than try to take you on at least.

"Uh oh! Grinch alert everybody! Somebody's trying to make an escape after trying to steal Christmas!" You flick your wrist quickly, snagging the back of the guy's stuffy coat and pulling him back toward you before he could run off too far. He lands with a bit of a thud as you tether him to the Webbing connecting to his two other compatriots, leaving them stuck together as they tried to break the lines holding them. "Now you kiddos just hold on tight, I'm gonna go get your friend." With that you fired off another line of Webbing and went swinging, immediately soaring through the air as you chased after the would-be getaway driver.  
  
Sure enough the difficult terrain they were forced to operate under were leaving them scrambling to move while you swung closer and closer. When you were just about in position you quickly fired off another Webline, catching them on the back of the shoulder as you did so. You saw that they were making a break for traffic and so quickly yanked them back, catching them as you did so. No need for a huge pileup on Christmas Eve, by your reckoning.  
  
"By the way, not exactly a smart idea to ditch the car. You guys know the police could've found out where you lived with that, right?"  
  
"Fuck you too buddy..." The person said before giving a halfhearted thrash to your Webbing which, no surprise, didn't work out. You quickly yanked them on back to their friends were you got to work, making sure they'd be all wrapped up and ready to give as a gift to the cops.  
  
"Now don't you kids worry; I hear they let Santa come by the holding cells to drop off his coal." The young adults all just grimaced or sneered at you which, hey, you were used to at this point. You turned to look back at the mall security and the guy who's stuff you just saved; the former clearly wasn't paid to handle vigilantes like you and the latter was stuck between being dumbfounded, worried and grateful.  
  
Which hey, two out of three ain't bad.  
  
"Once again Spidey Claus has swung on by to deliver a stocking full of justice! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!" You quickly fired off your Webline and swung off before the sound of sirens could even be heard, humming a merry little Christmas jingle as you did so...  
  
Man, the Holidays were awesome.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


The door opened quickly and shut just as soon as you rushed into the house, giving a quick shake as you patted your arms ever so slightly. Aunt May stuck her out from the kitchen, a thick head of steam billowing out slowly from the room as she grinned.  
  
"Oh Peter! Glad you got home! I hope the trip wasn't too hard on you; you were gone for a while." Aunt May said, greeting you as you took off your snow gear as you smiled on over to her.  
  
"Well it wasn't exactly easy. With all the snow and stuff making the trip to the post office and then to Ned's house was a bit of a jaunt. Still, got him his gift, got it wrapped and then picked up my gift from his house." You pulled out said gift from your backpack, jostling it around a bit before you put it back in and zipped your backpack back up. Of course all of this was a half-truth. It was entirely true that you'd gone out in order to pick up Ned's gift from the post-office box your family had that you'd had Amazon ship to. It was true that you'd gone out to get it wrapped up nicely before delivering it to Ned's house before his own folks got into the full swing of Christmas Eve. It was even true that the snow had slowed you down when it came to getting back home.  
  
All of that was true but, of course, omitted the time you took out in order to swing around as Spider-Man earlier in the day.  
  
"Well go ahead and put it under the tree and then get ready! Dinner should be ready soon!" You nodded at that as you quickly ran into the living room. A Christmas Tree with all the fixings was done and up right there by the window; golden cloth draped across the branches, wrapping around the tree and glittering in the white, golden lights that dotted every inch of it. Golden ornaments hung from the tree, though they were more gold colored; a lot of them were clearly made of some kind of mache that, while solid and well designed, wasn't quite as valuable as metal ornaments, though you guys did have a handful of those too. The glittering reflected lights cast onto a collection of golden, metal snowflakes that were stuck to the window; you were pretty sure that, at most, they were merely gold on the surface and, less than that, probably just gold painted metal but they still looked nice when reflected against the lights of the tree.  
  
At the very top of it was the star you yourself had picked out, the ornament standing proudly at its perch and shining the light of the entire tree in a cascade of reflections. According to Aunt May and Uncle Ben a lot of these ornaments and decorations had been ones they'd been collecting for years, adding new ones each Christmas for the collection. While some of them did indeed look old they had been incredibly well taken care of and Uncle Ben and Aunt May's combined talents for handiwork and art kept them looking good whenever something on them needed fixing or replacing.  
  
You quickly set Ned's gift down at the base of the tree where a handful of other presents, some from Aunt May to Uncle Ben, some from Ben to May and some from the both of them to you were sat. You still had your card ready and planned on setting it down after you did Uncle Ben and Aunt May's chores once they'd fallen asleep but, for now, nothing of yours to them was under the tree. Hopefully the surprise would add to the good feelings tomorrow morning.  
  
As you raced up the stairs to dump your backpack, you quickly passed by Uncle Ben, the older man chuckling as he watched you zoom on by.  
  
"Well hey there sport, don't get in too much of a hurry or you might burn yourself out before we even sit down to eat."  
  
"Sorry Uncle Ben, thanks!" You said, slowing down a bit in order to give a quick nod before you pushed yourself up the stairs. You quickly dumped your backpack into your closet as you quickly started getting to work getting a bit dressed up. Uncle Ben and Aunt May never instituted a suit and tie for Christmas Eve and Christmas Dinner, the two even regularly only wore dress socks around the house rather than socks, but they still liked to get into something at least a little dressy. Thankfully your new wardrobe included... well, a button up, collared shirt. Okay it wasn't too dressy but it'd do just fine and it'd keep your physique covered up still. As you combed your hair you thought about how tonight would go.  
  
Aunt May and Uncle Ben were usually pretty fast and loose when it came to Christmas Eve and Christmas activities, preferring to play it by ear after dinner on Christmas Eve and after breakfast, and before dinner, on Christmas Day. So you'd have a chance to advocate for some stuff you'd think would be fun on the days in question...

[ _"I'm Mr. Green Christmas,  
I'm Mr. Su~n!  
I'm Mr. Heat Blister,  
I'm Mr. Hundred-and-one!  
  
They call me Heat Miser,  
Whatever I touch!  
Starts to melt in my clutch!  
I'm too much!"_](https://youtu.be/I3yKEMhQU5k?t=93)  
  
... "You know, it's funny. Back when this came out when I was in High School I didn't figure it'd end up going on for this long. Like, Rudolph sure but that came out when I was a kid and I didn't know any better." Uncle Ben joked, rubbing his nose as you all sat, bellies full of Aunt May's amazing Christmas cooking, as you all watched the various marathons of the Rankin/Bass Christmas movies. Uncle Ben's statement was kind of a funny reminder for you; that while these movies had been out your entire life and, really, you didn't know a Christmas where they weren't at least references or played endlessly during the holidays, that Uncle Ben and Aunt May were actually of the age to see these as they came out... and then got progressively older. "It's only gotten funnier with age, if you ask me." You chuckled a bit at that; the stop-motion, while it was almost assuredly way ahead of its time at the time, had by now severely shown its age and...  
  
Yeah, it was pretty silly, not gonna lie. But you enjoyed it and, judging by Uncle Ben's tone, he enjoyed it in that way too. It was just a good time.  
  
"Oh you two, hush." Aunt May admonished you both, a quick, playful slap across your shoulder and Ben's as she fixed you both with a look. "This holds up just as well as when I first say it back in the 70s. This song alone still, er, 'slaps'."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"That's how you and your friends would put it, right?" Aunt May said after a pause, Uncle Ben looking at you for confirmation as you coughed into your fist.  
  
"Yes, that is how my[ fellow kids](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bI2PdskxE_s/maxresdefault.jpg) put it these days, Aunt May." Your awkward tone caused May to blush a bit as Uncle Ben burst out laughing, a loud guffawing as he leaned back which made you grin as you took in the entire scene, the moving still playing in the background.  
  
[ _"I'm too much!"_](https://youtu.be/I3yKEMhQU5k?t=196)  
  
'Too much.' You agreed in your head as your family settled in, amused and entertained.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


Alright. Now was as good a time as any. You slowly but surely opened your room's door, peeking your head out to ensure that neither of your guardians were up and walking about this late into the night. A quick stroll over to Aunt May and Uncle Ben's room presented you with an opportunity to hear the light, and slightly heavier, breathing of your Aunt and Uncle, leaving you pretty relieved as you quickly moved to get down the stairs, Christmas Card in hand. A quick jump to the roof that allowed you to crawl down rather than risking the steps creaking in your way down and you dropped at the base of the stairs and were met with the living room, still lightly lit by the Christmas tree even as the night outside was dim, snow falling against the backdrop of the ever alive Manhattan skyline in the distance.  
  
You took a deep breath, steadying yourself as you rubbed your hands together; Aunt May and Uncle Ben were fastidious people, of course, ever on the watch for little chores they could get done and even though both had careers it was no surprise that any number of tasks around the house usually ended up done. Uncle Ben fixed stuff up mechanically and Aunt May usually did what she could to keep things tidy. However, of course, they weren't able to do so constantly; Uncle Ben and Aunt May had careers to look after too and, well, they were getting pretty old and slowing down because of it. It would've been unfair to think that they could do absolutely everything, after all.  
  
So you'd go ahead and do some of the leftover work. Either stuff they'd meant to do for a while or stuff that had come up recently but they just didn't have time to get to what with Christmas and everything piling up.  
  
That would be easy enough to accomplish... it'd be decided 'what' exactly to do that got you thinking. While your Superpowers would make doing chores a breeze the fact of the matter was that was a double-edged sword. To all appearances you were just a normal kid and you needed it to stay that way. It was why you were so careful about how you dressed, keeping your glasses looking like they were still real and not overdoing it too much. You were making progress, of course, slowly phasing out the fake asthma over time but, well, doing a whole bunch of heavy chores in the middle of the night might push that a bit too far. So you needed to be a bit careful, at the very least.

You yawned as you quickly got to work. Doing the lightest of chores this late at night really wouldn't be all that helpful, or all that much of a gift, to Aunt May or Uncle Ben upon waking. After all, these were chores that they could probably do quite easily themselves on their own time that they just didn't find important enough to get around to. If you wanted to make this Christmas Present a good one then you needed to do some stuff that was a bit more intense. Not too much though; God knew that you'd really stretch your credibility if you did some insane stuff this late at night for too long. So in the end you went ahead and took up some tools from Ben's garage and a broom and a dustbin and started to get to work around the house.  
  
You were surprised how easy it was to lift up a couch one-handed, even though by now you really shouldn't have been. Your powers, turns out, came in handy quite a bit when even when it came to really mundane tasks; if they made you a pretty dang good Superhero then, it turns out, they made you a fantastic maid...  
  
Yeah, put that on your hero profile in the future. You laughed to yourself as you swept the broom under the couch, sweeping back a good deal of dust, hair and loose trash and objects that had fallen under there without either Aunt May or Uncle Ben rushing to deal with them. From there you got a few trash bags, a lot of paper towels and some washcloths in order to get to work on the fireplace. While building new fireplaces in New York was a difficult task, Aunt May and Uncle Ben had moved into this house with the fireplace installed. It was a nice way to add ambiance or, if the gas bill was looking to be a bit pricey during the winter, a good way to heat the living room without relying on the central heating.  
  
While there wasn't huge remains of logs or the like, Uncle Ben was good about clearing those out, your efforts did produce a lot of loose ash that, as if dumped from an ashtray, were scooped into one of the waiting garbage bags. Loose chunks of burnt up wood accompanied them and as you got in deep to make sure the fireplace wasn't being blocked up, you pulled some chunks of ash out that had slowly built up along the walls of it. By the end of it the washcloths you'd used were basically tarred black with specs of grey, which had spread to your hands.  
  
You heaved a sigh through a bit of cloth you'd tied around your lower face to keep from breathing too much of this stuff in. Time consuming and boring but, hey, practical. You got to sweeping up around the rest of the living room and, in the end, managed to dump all the loose dust, trash and ash into one garbage bag, keeping the other one ready as a just in-case measure as you tossed it, along with the used up paper towels, out. A quick wash under the sink to get rid of access ash before tossing the washcloths in the washing machine to be taken care of, taking everything else out and putting it in the dryer, seemed like the best way to handle them.  
  
From there you got Uncle Ben's tools ready and set to work in the kitchen, taking care of loose cabinets and other minor repairs as carefully as you could. Hopefully this stuff would be the bulk of what Aunt May and Uncle Ben would notice as it was the least demanding of the tasks on you while also producing the most audible results. No more squeaky or rattling hinges in the Parker kitchen for a good while if you had anything to say about it. You brought the broom and the dustbin into the kitchen as well, sweeping up loose bits of wood shavings that fell from your work and doing a bit of cleaning up around the kitchen to boot. From there you just continued to do these sort of chores around the basement and first floor, letting time pass you by as you tried to make the best of this gift for Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

You yawned slightly as you popped some bones after doing a lot of work. You took a quick tally of your work as you looked outside, seeing the sky was still dark and snow was still falling. Alright so it was still pretty early in the evening by the looks of it. You yawned again, shaking your head out as you glanced to a clock to see how many more hours you could reasonably squeeze out for chores...  
  
Oh. It was already close to 4 A.M.  
  
...  
  
Okay then.  
  
You yawned as you put the tools away and put everything else in its place. You'd been doing this for a few hours without realizing it; you guessed that as much as people quipped about time flying when you were having fun that time flew even harder whenever you were doing some pretty monotonous tasks like chores around the house. You quickly prepared Uncle Ben and Aunt May's card on the kitchen table; knowing them they'd wake up to try to make a quick breakfast before heading to Church... speaking of if you really wanted to go with them without being too terribly tired then you probably needed to start catching up on some sleep now. You yawned again as you finished setting up the card, trying to find the perfect spot to set it so you could be sure Uncle Ben and Aunt May would come across it. With that you quickly ascended the stairs back up to your room, stretching out a bit as you undressed from your 'work clothes', a pair of shorts and a t-shirt you'd chosen to get dirty while you did chores, before you hopped into bed, falling asleep almost as soon as your head hit the pillow.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
 ***Knock Knock Knock***  
  
"Hey there sport, we're getting ready to head on over to Church for service today. If you're in the mood to join us then go ahead and get up and have a little breakfast with us." Your eyes groggily opened up, blinking away dark splotches in your vision as you gave a wide yawn. "You catch that, Peter?" Uncle Ben's voice called out again, quieter this time, in case you were so deeply asleep that you hadn't heard him the first time no doubt. You rubbed at your eyes as you picked up your clock, taking a good look at it. Hovering around 7:00, like usual.  
  
"I'm up Uncle Ben and, yeah, I heard you. Give me a little bit to get showered and dressed and I'll be right down." You yawned as you spoke, shaking out the sleep as you slowly but surely kicked off the covers.  
  
"Alright there kiddo. I'll go ahead and get started on making sure we can get out of the garage in the first place." You nodded at that drearily again as you stretched out. Superhuman endurance or not, you had to admit that you still felt like someone punched you upside the head from how drowsy you were. You were still focused enough to be able to do stuff pretty easily, that very same Superhuman endurance allowing you to act on so little sleep, but it was still a distraction. You could probably spend more time like this than most people, no doubt... but man, was it still kind of a nuisance. Probably something to keep in mind if you ever needed to spend a few nights out for whatever reason; studying, traveling or doing Spider-Man stuff.

You heard the sound of the garage door opening as you hopped in the shower and the rush of an engine shortly after getting out. As you got dressed up and ready to head out once everything was said and done, keeping a nice loose shirt on underneath the other clothes for when you'd sit down for a quick breakfast, you finally managed to make it downstairs. A bit groggy but no less worse for wear. As you approached the kitchen you heard Aunt May humming to herself, your older relative turning as she heard you coming down the stairs, turning away from some quick eggs and bacon she'd been preparing for your pre-Church breakfast.  
  
"Oh, Peter!" You flinched as your Aunt rapidly approached though quickly relaxed when she just threw her arms around you. "There you are! Been waiting for you to come down; Ben and I got your little card." Indeed, sat proudly on the kitchen counter away from any potential mess was the card in question, still open and with your signature places squarely at the bottom of it. "Thank you so much dear, it's a wonderful present." You chuckled as you scratched the back of your neck, shrugging a bit.  
  
"It was nothing Aunt May, just didn't really have much money on hand so I thought I could..." You yawned a bit as you shook out your head. "Thought I could do a little work around the house instead." You said, May's smile still on her face even as a slight furrowing of her brow signaled her concern.  
  
"Oh thank you Peter, we both really do appreciate it... but I just hope you didn't stay up too late or work too hard. A growing boy like you needs his rest, and doing all these chores so late..." You waved her off, doing your best to give an energetic smile as you did so.  
  
"It's fine Aunt May, really. I didn't stay up that late, honest." A half lie, you were up till four after all, but hopefully your endurance would obfuscate how much sleep you actually missed out on. "Plus I just did some tidying up, worked on the cabinets. Nothing too major." That was more true of course. Aunt May sighed, kissing her forehead as she turned back to get to work on breakfast.  
  
"Well thank you Peter. Your Uncle's going to want to say so too once he comes back in I'm sure."  
  
"Darn right I am." You jumped a bit as Uncle Ben's hand pressed to the top of your head, having been distracted by trying to wipe off the kiss to your forehead. Your Uncle mussed up your hair ever so slightly and undid a bit of your combing in the process. Ah well, you sure it wouldn't be too bad. "Thanks sport. With everything else that needs tendin' too this time of year those chores kind of fell by the wayside. Really appreciate you stepping up to do 'em... just so long as you-"  
  
"Aunt May already asked Uncle Ben, I promise I didn't work too hard or too late." You said with a yawn, your Uncle turning over to look at May who just nodded her own confirmation.  
  
"Good, good. Glad to hear it. You know Peter you don't have to come to today's service if you don't want; you've done plenty and could probably use some sleep." You chuckled as you sat down, Aunt May getting the eggs and bacon off of the stove top as you shrugged.  
  
"Hey, I want to go. It'll be fine; a little lost sleep rarely ever hurt anyone." You remarked as you yawned ever so slightly again. Uncle Ben allowed it to be left at that as he sat down with you, Aunt May joining shortly thereafter as you all got some breakfast in you before heading to service. The Parker's might not've been super reliable churchgoers but Aunt May and Uncle Ben definitely made the effort, especially around big holidays. It was a family thing and one that held a certain importance in their heart and, to a lesser degree, your own. The Parkers were, after all... Catholics; having kept the faith dating as far back as the various religious back and forths in England, when the Parker family came to America it was with that old branch of the faith despite a whole lot of anti-Catholic waves throughout English, British and American History.

The outside of the building was[ austere and simple](https://queensmodern.com/wp-content/plugins/doptg/uploads/1Zr161fPhmcPNAjGN7Ad1gxaC1WR1ZhL7eH9zAFDZyDZ3ZLnOEkGDSSrjfMbeAEGg.jpg). Three double doors, likely painted over or leafed golden in color, sitting beneath a statue of the Virgin Mother herself, the cross standing atop the roof, all icons visible in defiance of the snowy weather that had overtaken New York. However, by now you'd gotten used to the fact that, despite the simple exterior that didn't stand up to some of the grander cathedrals that dotted New York City, that St. Sebastian's didn't skimp on the details when it came to the building. Open stepping through the doors and into the pews numerous other Catholics had already gathered, the [thin dome](https://queensmodern.com/wp-content/plugins/doptg/uploads/MYakCWm5YS3OS3fY5CRN2gsdBOfNwpAXG2FfnddzTyzXWTznPHWFZjRWPM6WKkKm4.jpg) that sat beneath the roof of the Church bathing the pews themselves in bright light as icons sat on the walls looking down on the people. The three of you took your seat in a traditional place; with some of the people from your neighborhood toward the middle.  
  
Christmas Mass didn't take much longer than a normal Mass; over an hour but usually before an hour and a half passed as the father of the Church stood before you all, calling on the faithful for blessings and the sermon. A line was formed and the Eucharist was given out, giving you the chance to peer closer at the [Altar itself](http://saintsebastianwoodside.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/mass_n.jpg). Hardly as grand as some you'd seen in pictures or from traveling, a great Crucifix still stood as its central adornment of the golden altar, flanked by further icons and paintings.  
  
Blessings and wisdom take from nearly two-thousand years of tradition were imparted and spread, as you sat and waited patiently. Maybe you were here for Aunt May and Uncle Ben's sake, maybe you were here for your own sake. As you got older those sorts of thoughts crept up more and more into your mind; pretty naturally too when you considered your scientific interests. Still, at the moment, those sorts of questions and pondering could always be saved for later.  
  
On the day when billions of people around the world celebrated this auspicious day, it was hard to not get wrapped up in these old and familiar traditions and bits of wisdom.  
  
...  
  
Still, if you knew anything from Protestant acquaintances and friends, it was that at least they had to sing at Church while you didn't have to sing at Mass. Which was a good thing; you imagined you'd be a little too embarrassed to do so.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"... Ben are you absolutely sure about this? This doesn't seem safe!"  
  
"Relax May, I did this every winter with my dad and Richard back when we were kids! Just hang on tight to Peter, promise I'll go slow for his sake." You had to admit you were actually pretty excited for this. You'd seen in pictures taken by your grandmother of your grandfather driving around with a sled tied to the back of the car back during Christmas, your dad and Uncle Ben seated in it alternatively screaming, in your dad's case, and laughing his ass off in your uncles. While you were always pretty nervous about before, after all you weren't exactly the picture of physical health back in the day before getting your Spider Powers, you couldn't lie that you were pretty excited that Aunt May was finally letting Uncle Ben do this.  
  
Or, really, that Uncle Ben felt safe enough to let you take part in this old activity from when he was a kid. So you and your Aunt sat on the sled, your Aunt holding onto you tight while she sat behind you to make sure that nothing happened. Really you were probably the one who was going to make sure that nothing happened if anything went down but, hey, it helped your Aunt with her peace of mind if she thought she was the one taking care of keeping the two of you safe. As Ben revved up the truck you could feel May jump a bit, causing you to chuckle a little as your Uncle stuck his head out of the truck.  
  
"You ready kiddo?" He shouted back over the engine to which you answered with a quick thumbs up as Ben nodded. "How about you May?"  
  
"I'm not ready!" May cried out as the starting of the car had pulled you two forward ever so slightly. As you gave your Uncle another sign that you were good to go Uncle Ben just gave a thumbs up, acting as if he hadn't heard May, as he pressed on the gas. "Ben, Beeeeeeeeeeeeen!" You had to admit you were a bit surprised yourself; the sled tugged almost immediately and, before either you or your Aunt really knew it, you were both gliding along the surface of the snow thanks to the metal underneath the both of you. True to his word Uncle Ben probably wasn't going fast as he could; especially on turns your Uncle made sure to slow down over a good period of time to prevent the both of you from just slamming into the back of his truck. Even on straight parts of the road he wasn't going too far too fast into the double digits, instead going just fast enough for you to really feel like you were going at a good clip.  
  
Despite the lack of full speed you could help but laugh; little bumps in the road sent you and Aunt May into the air, your butts leaving the sled as Aunt May cried out in panic before you both fell back down onto it. Turns saw you both leaning into them and the wind ran through your hair as you all sped along. Sure this was nothing compared to how swinging around as Spider-Man felt so, given that, you really didn't feel all that much blood pumping into your ears... but really, this experience was more about Aunt May and her reactions, your Aunt just whipping her hair about and calling out for Ben anytime something really big happened in the midst of the tow. You were just laughing at it all and enjoying yourself despite not truly feeling the adrenaline kick in too much.  
  
Soon you were all back on your main road and, just for show, Uncle Ben gave a quick burst on the throttle, causing Aunt May to give a short cry while you gave a small holler intermixed with laughter, feeling the slight kick as Uncle Ben gave you one big old show for the end of the road. Soon enough he slowed the truck down more and more while you and Aunt May dug your hands and feet into the snow to slow down and keep from getting anywhere near the truck's bumper. Eventually you all came to a stop, your hair and Aunt May's blown back by the trip as Uncle Ben jumped out of the truck, laughing at the sight of the two of you as he clapped his hands.  
  
"Well how was it, you two have fun?" Uncle Ben asked, a slight grin on his face as you nodded fervently.  
  
"Yeah, that was a lot of fun! Thanks for that!" You couldn't deny that it was fun, even if more of the enjoyment came out of Aunt May than from the adrenaline you kicked up while riding along.  
  
"... I'm going to make some tea now." You couldn't help but chuckle as you could literally feel Aunt May's hands shaking a bit as she got up off the sled, Uncle Ben shaking his head as he gave Aunt May some support; he could pull the truck back into the garage later. For now, best to make sure Aunt May's jelly legs didn't take her down after all that excitement.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


As to holiday slowly wound down and the time for gifts proper came, you couldn't help but feel the warmth of the day seep into your very being. A call from Ned thanking you for the present you'd sent and the anticipation that was clear in his voice for the inevitable marathon run you two would do of the box set sometime in the near future left you feeling quite warm and fuzzy and those feelings only increased when you tore open Ned's own gift to you. A [multi-tool](https://www.zoro.com/static/cms/product/full/Z-p-pyhcpEx_.JPG), not too bad looking either though obviously gotten on a budget. A blade, cutter, file, opener, plier, scissors, screwdriver, tweezers and some copies of those tools of different sizes totaling up to a nice solid ten. A note that came with the gift said it all.  
  
 _"For your backpack, in case you find yourself needing to a little work on the go, man."_  
  
No doubt you would have need of this here or there in the future. Though staying in your backpack still seemed a little out of the way... maybe some kind of sewn in utility belt was necessary.  
  
It was nice that Ned had been thinking about not just your interests but needs as well and you'd definitely have to thank him for this later. For now though it came down to Aunt May and Uncle Ben and, of course, the two of them had a small handful of presents. On their own the two of them had, of course, made you a handful of presents. The two of them were handy folks so of course they'd put in the work to do so. A hand knit scarf that, contrary to so many other bits of clothing that you'd seen people get for Christmas, didn't itch at all had been your first gift from Aunt May. Your Uncle, in turn, had made a little stand for your laptop; with how old the thing was getting it could heat up something awful. A little stand to keep it off your lap and to keep you from sweating had been something you'd considered buying previously.  
  
In addition to that your Uncle handed you a little card and, after opening it, a slip of paper fell out; a 'Free Driving Lessons' scrawled across it, valid once there wasn't so much snow on the ground. You couldn't help it; you were excited by the prospect of finally learning to actually drive.  
  
From there were some purchased gifts; Aunt May had apparently gotten in touch with Ned to purchase you a box set of anime for yourself. You were immediately relieved when it wasn't the same set you'd bought for Ned and instead proved to be a box of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood DVDs. Nice; no doubt Ned had the idea of marathoning them in his head too but you had no trouble imagining that he'd really thought hard about what you'd like when he'd advised Aunt May. Uncle Ben's wasn't wrapped and, instead, he brought out some metal work he'd done; little stands and platforms he'd made for your chemistry set downstairs to help keep everything organized, materials bought for while he worked them over in the garage.  
  
Which brought you to the last few boxes that your relatives had encouraged you to open all at once; sure enough it was a good handful of boxes worth of beakers, tubes, pumps and containers that were squeaky clean and perfectly fresh. With how much Webbing you'd been producing you were looking into some replacements but Aunt May and Uncle Ben had heard you out and quickly moved to make that purchase for you themselves...  
  
It was perhaps a little formulaic and obvious to say that you'd really loved the gift that you yourself had told them you wanted but, you couldn't lie, you really did like this. It'd help a lot and, well, you were just glad that they could afford to do all of this work in the first place for you.  
  
With all these gifts under your belt and the wonderful, warm feelings that came from the whole past day... well, really, what was there to say at this point?  
  
"Merry Christmas Aunt May, Uncle Ben. Thank you both... I love you guys." You said the last part awkwardly, which got your relatives to laugh as you sheepishly scratched the back of your neck. Hey you were getting older! You couldn't help it if saying mushy stuff like that was embarrassing these days.  
  
"Right back at you kiddo. Merry Christmas, Peter."  
  
"I love you too, deary. Merry Christmas."  
  
To say that the rest of the day was spent wonderfully, with you and your family gathered around, was an understatement. Christmas really was great this year.


	43. Welcome to ESU

This was it! Today was the day!  
  
"Hey kiddo, what's taken ya so long? Feels like you've been up in your room for an age now." You heard the amused tone in your Uncle's voice as he called for you from downstairs but and, under other circumstances, doing something that would tickle your Uncle's funny bone like that might've caused you some amount of embarrassment. This time however there was nothing for you to be embarrassed about.  
  
"Just a minute Uncle Ben, just want to make sure I look just right!" You heard the man laugh again though there was an approving grunt that accompanied it as you heard his steps move away from the stairs and back toward his chair. You were doing your best to pick out outfits and comb your hair; today was a big day for you. Perhaps the biggest day of your life... well, normal life anyway. If you hadn't gone to Oscorp and gotten bitten by the spider, it definitely would've been. A field trip to Stark Industries would've been cool and all but that would've just been a field trip, your class as a whole being brought over to see the sights and take it all in. You as an individual wouldn't have been seen and, furthermore, there was pretty much no chance you would've actually met Tony Stark himself.  
  
This. This was so huge though. Not only did your own personal accomplishments get you the chance to go to Doctor Connors' lab to see what one of the most famous Evolutionary Biologists in New York, heck, who were you kidding, _the_ most famous Evolutionary Biologist in New York, was up to. Not only were you being invited for this little trip personally by the good Doctor himself due to your own grades and the in that Max had given you that Uncle Ben had asked him for... but all of this was being done specifically so you could meet him.  
  
You wanted to make sure that Max and Uncle Ben's kindness wouldn't go to waste and you could make the best possible impression on Doctor Connors when you arrived! Even if you were only a Sophomore still this sort of meeting with the good Doctor could open who knew how many doors for you! It could stand to reason that you'd be open to so many possibilities later on in life if you just nailed this first impression! So, needless to say, you were doing everything in your power to do so. You were making sure your hair was nicely combed despite its somewhat long and messy nature, giving it a nice little part so you could look just a bit more fancy.  
  
You weren't going to get dressed up in your Sunday Best, of course, that would just be overkill and send the strong message that you were trying to brown nose him when, really, this was more meant to be a nice little personal visit and tour. Still that didn't mean you weren't dressing the best you could without coming off like a snob. You got out your best, loose fitting polo you could find and slipped it on, picked out a winter coat that looked like it went well with it, put on a pair of dress slacks because, hey, jeans or shorts certainly weren't going to cut it here and cargo pants seemed too casual too. Your nicer dress shoes also went on over top of some warm socks just to keep even with the winter weather.  
  
As you finished dressing up to started debating whether or not to wear a tie to this... but in the end you decided not to; that too seemed like trying too hard. You did yourself up to the nines elsewhere too; teeth brushed several times, mouth gargled out with mouthwash, deodorant liberally applied. You finished up and quickly ran down the stairs, soon finding Uncle Ben sat on his usual place, lounging in his comfortable chair as he read the newspaper to pass the time. Uncle Ben, too, was dressed in what you could only describe as something below casual-formal. A dress shirt that had clearly been ironed recently laid underneath Uncle Ben's usual winter coat and a pair of cargo pants had been thrown in.  
  
Though what caught your eye was the fact that Uncle Ben was wearing his work shoes.  
  
"Uncle Ben!" You cried out, your Uncle looking up at you with a chuckle. "You aren't going to the Connors' lab in those are you?" You asked as you quickly moved down the rest of the stairs, your Uncle putting the paper aside as he stood to greet you.  
  
"Come on kiddo, I'm not the one asked to be there. Besides, your Aunt May did a dang good job fixing these up if I do say so myself. I doubt anyone'll notice." You groan as you quickly check the time; darn it, no time to reasonably ask him to go back upstairs and change his shoes. You both had to leave soon if you were going to get to the lab on time!  
  
"Alright, alright." You relented, shaking your hands as Uncle Ben just gave a short belly laugh, Aunt May quickly walking into the kitchen with a couple bags ready for you both.  
  
"A shame that Max could only arrange it for this late but, it is what it is. You two snack on these on the way over so that you're not sitting there hungry." You checked the bag; a sandwich, a thermos, likely of cocoa or another warm drink your Aunt liked to prepare in the winter and some chips. It wouldn't be much but, as your stomach rumbled a bit, you decided it would hold you over at least.  
  
"Thanks May." Uncle Ben said, pressing a kiss to Aunt May's cheek as she started to rush you both off.  
  
"Hurry along you two! No need being late!" Despite her words Aunt May's tone was clearly as excited for the opportunity as your own.  
  
"Thanks Aunt May, we'll call you when we're coming back!" You quickly shouted over your shoulder as the two of you quickly made for the truck.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


Having been once before the arrival at good old [ESU](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/2/29/Empire_State_University_from_Starbrand_%26_Nightmask_Vol_1_2_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160602011857) was hardly a new or fresh experience. The library was still right there where you left it being a repository of knowledge with somewhat grumpy or uninterested people manning the front desk. That, however, wasn't what you were focusing on as your Uncle drove his way through the lightly snow covered roads surrounding and moving through the compact campus of the university. Slowly but surely you all made your way to another end of the campus where a large, square building with a skylight just barely able to be seen up top from the ground came into view. You couldn't help but shimmy in your seat excitedly, quickly tearing off your seat belt and hopping out of the car as Uncle Ben finally parked.  
  
"Woah, slow down there kiddo, the building isn't going to get up and walk away." Even with your excitement at a fever pitch Uncle Ben's words got you to slow down; good thing too with a patch of ice coming up that you were about to slip on.  
  
"Sorry Uncle Ben. I'm just... you know, this is the kind of thing I've always wanted to do! I wanted to see a lab like this up close and personal! It won't be like at Oscorp where it would've just been a tour of the outside of them-" Or interrupted by a Supervillain, though you kept that part to yourself, "-this'll be an up close and personal look at an _actual_ lab!" You said again as your Uncle laughed, patting you on the shoulder.  
  
"Believe me kiddo I'm happy for you and I get you're excited. Just don't get too ahead of yourself; gotta keep it cool." You nodded; right, cool. Gotta be cool in front of the actual scientists. It'd be a high order for you but you hoped you could get it done. As you both approached the front double doors, a plaque on the side of the wall next to them reading out the names of one _Doctor Curt Connors_ and _Doctor Miles Warren_ your Uncle reached forward and, after finding the doors locked, knocked on them. You both looked at each other, surprised at the doors being locked when you were told to come at around this time when, suddenly, they were unlocked and pushed open from the inside.  
  
Standing there was a university student who easily dwarfed you in terms of size. A shock of blond hair on top of his head could've helped to give him the spitting image of Flash Thompson were it not for how much broader he was than Flash. Despite a pair of blue jeans and a pair of thick, winter boots, the young man clearly belonged here; a white lab coat that seemed to be barely able to fit him was over a shirt he was wearing as his [grey eyes](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/3/3b/Edward_Brock_%28Earth-26496%29_from_Spectacular_Spider-Man_%28Animated_Series%29_001.png/revision/latest?cb=20190522103845) looked over the both of you.  
  
"Hey there, Semester hasn't started yet so the lab isn't really taking visitors at the moment." The young man awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, a gesture meant to make him seem relaxed as he looked at the both of you. "We're... wait hold on. You the Parkers?" He asked, quickly, as you both nodded.  
  
"That's right. Ben Parker, pleased to meet you, and this is my nephew, Peter." You nodded at that, the awkward, forced casual expression on the young man's face actually relaxing as a grin worked its way onto his features.  
  
"Oh nice, right on time too. Quick, get in before folks notice you; we technically aren't supposed to be open to tours yet." You both nodded as you entered, the young man guiding you both through into... wow. A huge laboratory, easily spanning the whole of the building. While a solid chunk of it was just one room that stretched all the way up to the skylight above walls and doors leading off to different rooms and stairs leading up to different floors broke off here and there. Tables upon tables of lab equipment were spread throughout the room, an entire wall lined with animals for experimentation of various kingdoms and an office just off to the side, the blinds pulled so as to keep the outside from peering in. Along a whole other section of wall a bright green light drew your attention and, as you focused, you saw what it was.  
  
Eels. A giant tank with dozens of eels swimming in this lime-green liquid that, while it mostly had the consistency of water judging by the looks of it, looked vaguely viscous as well. Off to the side from that was none other than Max who, upon seeing you two come in, gave a wave and a thumbs up before he went back to working on some kind of filter by the looks of it. For a moment you almost thought you spotted Doctor Connors at work nearby at a table, checking over notes and fiddling over a sample of the green liquid. However, having seen pictures of the man you were quickly able to shake it off; Doctor Connors was, after all, a blond man. The man standing at the table was bespectacled to start, with brown hair, a rather [bushy mustache](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelanimated/images/c/c1/MilesWarren.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20151023133418) and most tellingly definitely had a flesh and bone right arm. If you had to guess this was the enigmatic Miles Warren you'd heard about.  
  
"Yo, Doctor Connors, your visitors are here!" The young man called out, a bit of shuffling from within the nearby office alerting you both to it as the mustachioed doctor raised his head as well. Soon after a blond man walked out of the office and, immediately, you recognized it as Curt Connors; the blond hair, [the dark eyes,](https://i.imgur.com/4mmvCcp.png) the Oscorp-brand prosthetic hanging off of his right arm. Sure enough this was the Cut Connors you'd seen in newspaper pictures and on the internet.  
  
"So they are; thank you Eddie. Could you go and help Martha while Miles and I tend to our guests?" The young blond man nodded as he gave you and your Uncle a quick wave, running off to another end of the lab to help an [auburn haired woman](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelanimated/images/d/d1/Martha_Connors_SSM.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20181205173339) as she worked with a computer at the back wall. As he did so Curt Connors walked up, Miles falling in behind quickly as he adjusted his glasses. "Ben, it's good to see you. Been a long time." You blinked as you looked up over your shoulder at Ben, your Uncle smiling as he reached out and shook Doctor Connors' hand.  
  
"Curt. It has been; too long, really. Haven't seen you since my brother took the position at Oscorp. How've you been?"  
  
"Well, about as good as can be expected." Curt said, the man clearly a bit uncomfortable with the apparent reunion between himself and Uncle Ben. "You must be Peter then; spitting image of your dad, just the way Max described you. Grades are too, if you wouldn't mind me saying so." You blushed a bit at that, choking on your words at being complimented by a man of science like this. "Let me introduce myself-"  
  
"Come now Curt, the boy's clearly star struck. I hardly think introduction are in order." The mustachioed man spoke evenly as he walked up, offering his own hand for a shake. "Miles Warren; mine, I think, is the only necessary one given my partner's fame here." Curt chuckled, nervously, scratching the back of his head as he did so.  
  
"Perhaps but it is polite. Curt Connors." Curt introduced himself as you just offered a numb nod. Smooth, Parker, smooth. Come on, say something!

The funny thing was that you had, in fact, heard of [Doctor Warren](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/page-135#post-53654608). Though as you opened your mouth to deliver a 'Well actually' that would surely have rocked his world... well, you thought better of it. In truth you only really knew about Doctor Warren in so far as that he worked with Doctor Connors and... that he was kind of a mysterious and little known public figure. Saying that you knew of him and then spewing something like that or, worse, trying to bullshit that you knew more about him than you actually did... yeah that probably wasn't going to go over too well. So you decide to just go with the flow and, smiling, you reached out to shake both of their hands.  
  
You kept your Super strength in check, of course, even if the feeling of the metal prosthetic that Doctor Connors wore gave you a bit of a jolt from the contact. Stupid static electricity.  
  
"Peter Parker, since we're being polite." You said with a nervous chuckle as both Warren and Connors shook your hand in turn. "It's nice to meet you both, thank you for having me." You said, eagerly, as Miles nodded his head, hand retracting from yours after a moment to mess with his mustache.  
  
"You should save more of your thanks for Connors here. While your grades were impressive it isn't really my... prerogative to offer tours. Slows down the work in the lab, you understand." You nodded at that, Miles Warren looking over to Doctor Connors. "However, Max worked his magic with Curt here and at the same time he seems to have a small affinity for your family. Though he did have the good sense to tell me so beforehand." You glanced over to Doctor Connors, watching as the man reached up with his left hand to scratch at the back of his neck.  
  
"What can I say, Max was quite insistent that Ben Parker's nephew come, given how excited he was. His grades were also quite good... and, yes, I will admit that I was curious to see how Richard's son was doing." You nodded at that, your eyes widening a bit as you looked between the two of them.  
  
"Oh yeah, Ben told me that you knew my folks! Were you a family friend or something?" Ben and Curt both laughed... although you recognized the sort of laughter. Very awkward, very forced laughter. Curt was the first to speak after a moment.  
  
"Well I, mmmm, was a friend of your parents. Richard, your mother, my wife and I went to ESU in the same class and, well, when you're fields are as close as ours were you tend to end up in a lot of classes together. Clicks might not be what they are in high school but those sorts of connections do tend to form within the same departments. We even worked in a handful of labs together after graduating... but, well, when they had their own kids and took that job at Oscorp we ended up just not seeing as much of each other." You could see Ben cross his arms a bit at that, nodding his head slowly as Curt spoke even as he glanced down at the prosthetic the man wore.  
  
"Mmmhmmm. Curt came over a few times kiddo. Not surprised you don't remember, you were still pretty young at the time. Just kind of naturally drifted apart when your folks took up a different job in a different lab. When they passed, well, sad thing was that we never quite took the time to keep up." Curt frowned at that, a sad looking expression, before he heaved a small sigh.  
  
"Yeah. It's a shame things ended up that way." Uncle Ben just nodded, again slowly, as Curt cheered up. "Enough of that though. What matters is that it looks like you're a chip right off your mother's block. Straight As, like it was nothing." Curt laughed as he patted you on the shoulder to guide you into the lab. "It's good stuff; your dad would've had a problem with the literature stuff. He wasn't much of a creative type." Curt intoned with a laugh, Ben just giving a short smile and a nod as you stood there, in awe of the situation. Here you were being guided around a laboratory by Curt Connors, a man renowned, even if now he was slightly infamous, within the Biological community and he knew your folks! This was just so crazy, it was-  
  
"Careful there, Mr. Parker. Don't want to start hyperventilating." You blushed at that as Miles called you out on your excitement; everyone from Max to Doctor Connors had a small grin or a laugh on their lips as you awkwardly shifted around a bit, looking down at the floor.  
  
"Sorry, sorry. I'm just... really excited and really nervous. I've been following so much work over the years and yours definitely kept popping up again and again when I'd research stuff related to biology. After just being on the sidelines and reading about it for so long... well, it's just really exciting to finally be here in it!" You said, spreading your arms out as Curt laughed at that.  
  
"Well I'm certainly glad for the enthusiasm Peter. You shouldn't be so nervous though; I might've known your parents but if you didn't have the grades to back it up then you wouldn't be here right now. So you earned your way here." You nodded at that as Curt walked off, heading towards the tank. With the press of a button the tank slid along the ground, popping out of the wall and exposing the top of the tank. "Besides, that enthusiasm is such an important part of science too. Discovery, research, hard work. It's all fueled by passion, the desire to keep moving forward and building on top of our predecessors' hard work.  
  
"All of that energy Peter, you'll be able to put it to good use if you make a career of it. You'll find all the various connections that make up nature; I can tell you with absolute certainty that it's _all_ connected. As a scientists it's my job, our job and, eventually, your job to find and expand on those connections." Doctor Connors slid on an insulated glove onto his left hand, picking up a metal hook as he pushed a ladder up to the side of the tank. "For the benefit of all mankind." He tossed in at the last moment, fishing the hook in as Miles Warren stepped up.  
  
"The connections my colleague here is talking about, in this case, are a few modifications that've been made to these electric eels and rays." You looked into the tank and noticed that as Doctor Connors stirred up the tank a few rays, flat against the ground, swam about, sparks of electricity coursing visibly through them as they swam about in the tank. "Evolutionary Biology is a wondrous thing when you start picking at the various connections. So many species that evolved so many traits, some of them quite similar to the other on strands of protein that aren't too dissimilar from one another. Despite how different we look on the outside even something as genetically distant from our mammalian selves as a chicken shares 65% of its DNA with us."  
  
"That much huh? You know, I always thought Mr. Henderson's neck skin seemed suspiciously red and loose." Uncle Ben nudged you in the ribs, the joke getting some laughter from Max even as Doctor Warren and Doctor Connors seemed to just flat out ignore it. You chuckled awkwardly trying to not feed too much into it in front of these two serious men of science as they continued.  
  
"Yes, many species share much more than even that. Some less of course. However, the point Miles is making is that so many species share similar building blocks that were just arrayed in different ways by chance. For example, a good number of species have electro-receptive capabilities and a few more, like these specimens in the tank, can produce it at levels suitable enough in nature to stun predators and prey alike. Similar traits, or ones very close, but spread out across the entire animal kingdom. Genes that help assist in the production of these electrical currents that might've been constructed in different ways by evolution that, if combined and contextualized, could be transferred or constructed into other species."  
  
You awkwardly scratched at your arm a bit. Huh, you know, a lot of stuff about what they were talking about kind of reminded you of the whole Spider-thing. Was Oscorp working on something similar in its Spiders and that's why this whole thing happened to you? It seemed unlikely; Doctor Connors was talking animal to animal... but considering what rumors you'd heard about what the man wanted to work on concerning limb recovery.  
  
"So the experiment here is two-fold. We're trying to prove that by introducing some of these different DNA strands into similar specimens and, with the right conductive material, we can in fact strengthen the innate capabilities of species beyond what they might normally be capable of. We've introduced these eels and rays and experimented on them while they were developing in their eggs, introducing chemically altered strands of each other's DNA using STEM cells from some other batches of eggs from the same spawns, from there..."  
  
Oooookay... that was some _very advanced_ terminology that Doctor Warren was throwing around. You suspected that your Uncle and even Max was lost pretty early on but after discussing the introduction of altered DNA and the methods they used to do so Doctor Warren even managed to lose you a bit. You still... kind of had a gist. He was essentially... replacing DNA with other DNA. At least that's what it sounded like.  
  
"Miles, Miles, please. The boy's bright but I think throwing all that at him at once is a bit much." You shook your head at that, snapping out of your stupor as everyone turned to look at Doctor Connors, an apologetic smile on his face. "In terms a bit more appropriate for your considerable knowledge, Peter, we're augmenting these creature's capabilities using DNA found in other creatures with similar ones. In addition the tank itself is filled with a viscous fluid meant to act as a sort of feedback loop; the more power they charge into it, the more power they can charge overtime." Okay that was a lot easier than the Doctorate Lecture that Warren had launched into.  
  
"... Still at it, huh Curt?" Ben asked, a slight sigh in his voice as he looked up at Doctor Connors, the blonde man giving a soft, if somewhat strained, smile as he waved it off.  
  
"Ben, it's fine. Trust me, it isn't about any of that business. This is a little something for the University. After some of my other projects proved to be more... theoretical than practical, Miles and I came up with this as a practical use for our research. If we can do this, turn this into a self-feeding loop of power, then we might very well have a whole new Green Energy source using Bio-electricity from animals. All one would have to do in order to sustain it would be to... well, maintain a fish tank." Ben raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the tank.  
  
"Pretty advanced fish tank still, Curt."  
  
"Uncle Ben!"  
  
"No, your Uncle's right Peter. It is quite advanced and, were it just Miles and I it would probably be far outside our field of specialty to maintain it. That, however, is why we've hired Max here. The amount of power that the eels and rays have been producing has climbed so much that we actually need more intensive work done on the electrical equipment siphoning the power off to the rest of the school before feeding some of it in. It's been a pretty busy week for us."  
  
"For you?" Max said with a chuckle, leaning back from his work at a nearby... huh, now that you got a closer look at it the thing he was working on, indeed, looked like it was one-half power converter and one-half aquarium filter. Curt just laughed warmly.  
  
"I stand corrected. It's been a pretty busy week for Max." The electrician just nodded at that, giving a slight shrug as he went right back to work.  
  
"Max here has been a good hire considering the project. It's also satisfied the university to a greater and lesser degree. Curt is quite right, of course; if this research here goes well then it does unlock... well, very interesting things." Curt nodded in agreement with Doctor Warren, even as the latter adjusted his glasses ever so slightly.  
  
"Hope that an aquarium isn't too run of the mill for a tour, Peter. We've got some other small experiments we've been working on as well to show still." You snapped your attention back to Doctor Connors. Was he joking!?

"I mean, yeah sure, I'd love to see your other experiments but... wow." You remarked, looking around and feel pretty dang amazed as you stroked a hand through your hair. "I mean, sir, if this is run of the mill for you then I'm... I mean, I just gotta see what you consider exciting! A lot of scientists would consider something like this as their big, world changing project." You declared with an excited fervor. You looked around much of the lab and, as you did so, you'd notice Uncle Ben looking a bit stiff. The man was all smiles of course, especially when you looked his way, but he still seemed a bit... tense.  
  
"Gotta agree with Pete here, Curt. This seems like the kind of thing you could really hang your hat on. Surely you can't be working on too much else with this big old thing taking up so much time." Ben offered, Doctor Connors in exchange just politely nodding before he rolled his eyes.  
  
"True, it does take up a lot of time but... well, I'm sure Richard talked to you a lot about how Universities can be about grants and what they pay you. The green energy experiment is getting the lab a good deal of money but, well, we could always use more in order to support more staff. Besides, science always marches forward; even if I've got a big plate in my lap right now I can always do more." You nodded in agreement with that as Uncle Ben just nodded, exhaling a breath.  
  
"Of course Curt, of course. Can't complain too much if you got Max here a good job after his seasonal work with us was done." Max looked over his shoulder, waving at the whole lot of you as he continued working on changing out various filters, a drill in hand as he moved to replace another of the filters in the power sink device.  
  
"At any rate, if you're excited in seeing some of the other projects we've been occupied with Peter just go ahead and follow me." The night went on like that; away from the aquarium with its fish and sparks you were guided along the various walls of the Connors and Warren laboratory. Doctor Warren... well, he was always kind of rigid and difficult, speaking in the terms one would expect of a man of his intellect even if it was clear it could leave you and your Uncle behind. Doctor Connors was always much more attentive and understanding; either having Eddie or his wife explain details about experiments should Doctor Connors not be fully up to date on the results himself.  
  
It was some fascinating stuff. Offices as far afield as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault sent samples of various plants they were working on to see what kind of work could be done to genetically modify them for further, stronger use in case of any natural disasters or strong and sudden shifts in the planet's various workings. The pair, however, were more clearly into animal biology in that regard; diseases and plants and the evolutionary biology therein was clearly understood to them and they could make progress with various little treatments or breeding experiments to produce better stock, but the two men clearly specialized in the animal kingdom and it showed in the breadth of their experiments.  
  
You got the feeling that Doctor Connors and Doctor Warren were doing their best to paint a friendly face on it; keep the more bright and cheery animal experiments front and center rather than some of the harder work that they might have to do as part of a lab. Still they pulled no punches about grant sponsors when describing some of these experiments, if only because it helped to explain what they were hoping to accomplish. Apparently Oscorp had sent for some testing to be done on specimens to determine the viability of antibiotics the company was developing to move on to the human phase of testing. Something that Oscorp chose not to handle within its own labs for some reason or another.  
  
The night wore on and eventually much of the options of the tour was being exhausted. By the time you all worked your way back to the core of the lab Max had worked his way from back to front of the machine, having replaced virtually all the filters as he worked away at the last one, unscrewing the last few screws as your Uncle checked his watch.  
  
"Well now, seems to be getting a bit late. Gotta imagine you boys'll be done for the evening soon." Ben remarked, a smile on his face as Curt shook his head.  
  
"Not tonight actually. We're taking advantage of the Holiday Break to get in some extra work in the lab. When classes start back up again Eddie will need some extra time for schoolwork and, of course, the lab'll be needed for a few classes taking place here at ESU. So best to burn as much oil as we can while we don't have quite as many obligations to worry about."  
  
"Make sense." You remarked casually, Uncle Ben nodding slightly as he looked around.  
  
"I suppose. Seems a shame but then I guess Richard and Mary burnt more than their fair share of the midnight oil." Ben said as Doctor Connors just laughed slightly.  
  
"Ben, please, you worry too much. I'll be sending Max and Eddie when their work's done and it'll just be Miles, Martha and myself."  
  
"Think I should maybe head back early too though dear; the babysitter probably has things they'd like to do on a holiday evening themselves." Martha called out, Doctor Connors giving a short pause before nodding.  
  
"Right, of course. Almost forgot we have her on the clock." Your tour guide said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head as Max started to struggle with the last of the filters.  
  
"How's Billy doing anyway? Heard you and Martha finally got down to having a kid of your own... hope you two got the congratulations from May and I. You didn't respond so... you know." Ben shrugged and you watched in some stunned disbelief as Doctor Connors actually blushed a bit at that, a guilty expression on his face.  
  
"Of course we did. Sorry Ben, we just... well, we were excited and wrapped up in it." Ben smiled softly, shaking a hand at that.  
  
"Then think nothing of it, I understand completely. I remember way back when; Richard was wrapped up in this little guy here when he finally came into the world." You blushed, embarrassed, as Uncle Ben reached down and tossed your hair around and in the process undid a lot of your combing. You bent out of his grip, causing the older man to just laugh slightly at your reaction as you returned your gaze to the good Doctors and bent your head.  
  
"Thanks for having me Doctor Connors, Doctor Warren. This was a real honor! I hope I can come again someday!" You declared, Doctor Connors smiling slightly as Warren adjusted his glasses.  
  
"Well Mr. Parker, keep your grades up, keep an eye out for opportunities and keep in touch when you've gotten a little farther along in your studies and perhaps we can talk. For now though-"  
  
"Come now Miles, no need to be so official about it." Doctor Connors remarked before turning his gaze back at you. "Peter, you've clearly got a lot of potential. I think arranging for a visit every now and then to help nurture that mind of yours might not be a bad idea at all. Plus, Miles is right; if you keep those grades up and keep at it then perhaps you'll be able to find a little opportunity at this lab yourself someday." You beamed at that, turning back to Uncle Ben who was grinning as well, though his brow was furrowed a bit.  
  
"You hear that Uncle Ben!?" You asked, excitedly, as Uncle Ben rubbed at his rough chin.  
  
"Yeah, yeah I heard it. Good job sport, looks like your hard work's really paying off." You nodded though, of course, you chuckled.  
  
"Well it wouldn't have if it wasn't for you and Max... thanks Max!" You quickly added, realizing you hadn't done so personally as Max paused from his work, grunting and trying to force the filter from the machine as he looked over at you, wiping an arm across his sweaty brow.  
  
"Hey no sweat kid. Your Uncle was real good to me on the job and I figured, hey, why not. Seem like a sharp kid." You nodded at that as Uncle Ben clapped you on the shoulder, Max going right back to struggling against the filter as Ben laughed.  
  
"You need a hand there Max? I could help you get that thing out if you like." You watched your Uncle reach down for his sleeves. He didn't make to move to join Max at first, clearly waiting for either an okay from Max himself or his bosses. The offer, as it ever was from Uncle Ben though, was clearly genuine as the amused spark in his eyes conveyed.  
  
"Pfft. You forget all the work I did back in the shop? I can handle one dinky filter there Ben." You saw your Uncle raise up his hands defensively, laughing a bit as Doctor Warren stepped forward.  
  
"Besides, much as your gesture might be appreciated Mr. Parker, Mr. Dillon is the man we hired for this work and who has the education to understand how the machine works." You winced a bit at that; even if Uncle Ben didn't take visible offense to that it was clear that Doctor Warren was speaking somewhat aggrandizingly. Sure, he might not have been wrong; Max was the one hired to work here and he was the only one of them accredited to do so. Still, your Uncle knew a lot about working on machines. It was just changing out a filter; he probably could've helped.  
  
"Besides, Max knows what he's doing and it'll be safer for everyone involved if we just let him-"  
  
The sudden sound of sheet metal loudly scraping against metal, a yell of surprise and the shattering of glass all fell upon the lab at once. Water rushing forward, light shouts of pain as electrical currents audibly cracked through the air, even before said water reached the power sink device...  
  
After that... well, you couldn't hear Max scream. Whether that was because the currents were locking up his throat or because... well, the [sheer volume of power crackling](https://youtu.be/QQtWsLbVhoI?t=32) through the air, even from the distance you stood, was drowning him out.  
  
"GOD DAMMIT CURT, DON'T JUST STAND THERE! WHERE'S THE DEAD MAN'S SWITCH!?"  
  
Before you could even start thinking of a plan or trying to think of a way to just use your own physical might to do something, it didn't surprise you that Ben was immediately on it, pushing you back away from the water as he did so.  
  
...  
  
You'd never forget it for as long as you lived. How even when the power was finally killed and the lights all went out that there was this... dull glow that still came from the water. The way Max convulsed in it, Curt Connors and Miles Warren not letting anyone near it for fear of a similar shock.  
  
The ambulance seemed to take forever.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You all had followed in your various vehicles. Uncle Ben had tasked you with operating his phone while he drove, putting people on the other end on speaker so he could update them. Max's coworkers that Uncle Ben knew and Aunt May had been called but, well, Ben hadn't been aware of any family Max may, or worse may not, have had. The Connors had followed in their own car and Eddie Brock and Miles Warren in Doctor Warren's vehicle. Out of all of you the only ones allowed to follow in deeper into the hospital once it was all said and done were Doctor Warren and both of the Doctor Connors, the two men who'd be able to present the hospital staff with the most help.  
  
So it was left with the rest of you to wait it out. Uncle Ben, free of driving, took command of handling his own phone and talking to people, giving updates where he could and telling them which hospital it was when he couldn't. Eddie just seemed nervous, the young man pacing back and forth through the hospital lounge as the larger young fellow just ran a hand through his hair. You on the other hand just sat by Uncle Ben; as much as he was reaching out to support other people you knew he had taken a liking to Max himself. So whenever he was done talking, done calling people, when he'd take his seat, fold his arms together and just stare at the hospital doors, waiting, you'd do your best to strike up a conversation with him, reassuring your Uncle and trying to lift his spirits...  
  
You weren't sure how successful your efforts were as, more often than not, it seemed like your Uncle just smiled and turned those efforts back on you; ruffling your hair and saying that he was fine, Max was going to be fine and that you didn't have to worry so much...  
  
You weren't that worried, you thought. You didn't know Max that well. He'd given you the opportunity to meet some legit scientists and had been the guy, alongside Uncle Ben, to bridge that gap. You just owed him a lot. You couldn't really be too attached... you just wanted to be sure such a nice guy didn't end up really badly hurt over this.  
  
...  
  
Okay so maybe Uncle Ben was right about you being worried too. Still, Uncle Ben didn't need to be the sole pillar of strength in all of this.  
  
In time the three Doctors exited from the hospital accompanied by additional ones who actually worked in the hospital. Immediately you all got up and approached, Doctor Connors scratching the back of his head as he walked up to you all.  
  
"He's alright. It was a close run thing according to the medics, they were worried about the initial brunt of it all but he's stabilizing, thank goodness." Immediately a huge weight fell from everyone's shoulders at this news; Max was going to make it through at the very least. That was good, that was real good. "... We're going to be staying here for the night, however. Max... well, he'll need some help that the staff here won't be able to give themselves. We'll need to dip into the funds for some design but..." Ben's brow furrowed.  
  
"What are you talking about Curt?" Your Uncle asked as Miles Warren stepped up.  
  
"It seems the... combination of the experimental liquid and the sheer volume of power surging through Max had an... effect. He's... well, it's hard to say what's happening right now but the point is we'll need to do some work in order to help contain this affliction." Miles Warren laid it out flat on the table, causing you to wince. So while Max was alive it didn't sound like he'd gotten out clean... and considering what the tank was meant to be working on you could only imagine what was going through everyone's heads right now.  
  
"So he's still badly hurt then." Ben remarked, furrowing his brow as Doctor Connors nodded, slowly.  
  
"In a manner of speaking. He's fine, of course, he's not in pain but it's just... well, it's hard to describe..." Ben again nodded, bending his head down a bit at that as he put his hands on his hips. "Ben listen I know Max was good friends with a lot of you at his old job and... look, I'm sorry."  
  
"Curt..." Ben sighed, shaking his head. "Look..." Ben shook his head again, looking up at him with a clear expression. "Listen; it's not your fault. With big projects like this, or even the small stuff in science, accidents happen all the time. May and I know that better than most people." Doctor Connors nodded at that as Uncle Ben placed a hand on your shoulder.  
  
"Indeed; could've happened to any of us. It was just a freak accident." Eddie remarked, though the thought seemed to give him no comfort, as Miles nodded in agreement.  
  
"Still, we'll be doing our utmost to make sure Max finds a quick road to recovery." The Doctor, so cold and forward, was at least able to sound certain and authoritative here... which, yeah, was somewhat comforting in its own way.  
  
"I'm sure. Look, it's getting late for Peter here and for all of us. Think I'm going to head home with him and come back tomorrow to check in... if that's alright." Ben asked as Doctor Connors just nodded immediately.  
  
"Of course Ben. We'll see you tomorrow." Despite whatever objection Warren might've given before Connors so readily agreed the doctor dropped it, allowing all parties to leave on... well, a positive note, considering Max was at least going to be okay. Soon enough you and your Uncle worked your way back down to his trunk, the two of you quickly jumping on in as Uncle Ben finally released a breath, your older relative leaning back into his seat as he placed his hands on his face.  
  
"Dammit Curt..." Your Uncle whispered under his breath, shaking his head after a moment before looking back over at you. He worked up a soft, apologetic smile. "You doing alright over there, kiddo? Sorry your night had to turn out like this... and sorry that you had to see that. I know it probably doesn't exactly... you know, feel great all things considered." You nodded at that, slowly, as you leaned back in your own seat, looking out the truck's window.

"If I'm being honest? I really can't tell if this was better or worse than Oscorp." Uncle Ben nodded, sadly, the two of you looking forward out the window as you just let that sit. On the one hand, Oscorp was definitely more terrifying. Vulture had gone in there with the intent to cause chaos and seriously hurt people. Maybe even kill them if he came across Norman Osborn. The fact that it'd been done while you all were there minding your own business was... well, it was scary at the time. It shocked a lot of you. Still, at least on the other hand you got Spider Powers out of it, even if you had to keep that part quiet.  
  
This here might've just been an accident, it might've just been an awful awful accident but... man. You watched Max fry there. Sure you didn't know the guy extremely well but still it was someone you knew and... God, he just got lit up like a Christmas Tree. The fact that he was only not screaming because of the currents running through his throat was no small comfort either. You were up close and personal to the Vulture's initial break in and the up close sight of him, how he pinned security guards to walls and how dangerous he looked but seeing Max in so much pain was just... God awful.  
  
Even if you couldn't quantify which of the two incidents were worse, the fact that they'd both gone so poorly was just well and truly discouraging. At least with Oscorp it seemed like everybody got out okay. You still weren't sure what kind of condition Max would be in. Still... at least compared to Oscorp you weren't dry heaving or felt awful.  
  
"I'm... okay though. Really shaken up but, hey, at least that's better than how Oscorp went down." Uncle Ben nodded his head slowly at that, resting his hands on the wheel of the truck as he absorbed that.  
  
"I'm glad too. Honestly would've been an even more stressful night if I'd have had to worry about you like that again. You looked so sick back home in bed Peter, we almost took you to the hospital then and there. I'm glad you slept it off of course but... whew." You nodded at that, wincing at the obvious concern in Uncle Ben's voice. "The fact that you're holding up fine is a weight off my mind, kiddo." Well, there was that at least. You nodded in agreement as you both looked back out the window, snow still coming down at a consistent clip. Still... as shaken up as you were, and considering what Uncle Ben just said, you did have to ask the obvious question.  
  
"What about you, Uncle Ben? You holding up alright?" It was clear that Uncle Ben had come to like Max a lot as a coworker, even inviting him home with the other guys to hang out. Even if you were okay a lot had to be weighing down Uncle Ben's mind. The older man nodded, leaning back in his seat as he took a breath.  
  
"About as well as can be expected... though, God knows, it was hard to keep it all together there for a bit. Especially with Curt being so upset over it. Didn't want to put anything else on that man's plate so I held but back... God dammit Curt." You paused a bit at that; it was rare to see Uncle Ben so well and truly exasperated. He looked tired and, well, who could blame him. It was late and you all had been through a lot.  
  
"... I'm guessing you saying it wasn't Doctor Connors fault was... being nice?" You asked, indirectly, as Uncle Ben looked over at you.  
  
"... Peter... no. I mean... no and yes. It wasn't his fault of course; it was a freak accident. Those sorts of things can happen anytime and people can get hurt. Doesn't mean it's the fault of whoever's overseeing it... but the nature of it... well..." Ben ran a hand through his hair as he leaned back. "Hmmm... Peter. I know you look up to folks like Connors and for good reason. The man's razor sharp, one of the best in his field. Your mother and father would go on and on about how brilliant he was in biology. Working alongside him, according to them, was an honor and a privilege. Just being around him and his wife, working together in any number of labs, helped them learn a lot about the field and helped guide them along to that big job with Oscorp. If everything had worked out well, well, a lot of things would be different for us all." You nodded at that.  
  
"Seems like getting that job ended up splitting them up though." You mentioned as you watched Uncle Ben scratch the back of his neck awkwardly.  
  
"Well... that's sort of true. Your mother and father did get that job and that was pretty much the last we saw of Curt up until recently. However, your mother and father got that job and Curt didn't because... well, Curt had his accident. Now, that alone didn't keep him from going with your parents but... well, the attitude Curt developed did. Richard would talk about it a lot; how Curt's priorities changed after that day. Seemed like every experiment he took on after that always had their eyes on the exact same prize; getting that arm of his back on his body. Anything less than his own arm wouldn't work either." You nodded at that; you'd heard as much when it came to the rumors surrounding Doctor Connors.  
  
"So... when Oscorp extended the offer it was just to your mom and dad. Osborn must not've wanted someone with Curt's growing reputation on hand, especially if his focus was going to be split up. Still, after all these years I still let you go because you obviously look up to the work Curt does. He's still very sharp after all, always was... and I thought maybe Curt had changed a bit after all this time. That he was ready to move on. Nearly a decade of time should change people, after all... but that was silly. Trauma like that can be hard for people to let go of.  
  
"Max survived the shock but... well, you heard them. Somethings up with him that Curt and that Warren fella have to help the doctors fix. I can't help but feel like it has something to do with that tank of theirs." Uncle Ben sighed as he leaned back. "I think you're right kiddo. Anybody else who made something like that, with that stated goal, would consider that an achievement. The pride of their lives... but listen to what that was about and seeing what all else Curt was up to, well, it's hard not to feel like he's still up to those old games.  
  
"Your mother and father tried to talk him out of it of course, way back when... but that's what ended up being more the split than anything. Curt wasn't having any of it and your mom and dad were just ready to move on. The man let that mind of his be turned. I can't blame him for being upset with the loss of that arm of his but... well, your mom and dad made it clear that it was practically all he thought about. I'm willing to bet my last cent that it's what he had his mind on when it came to this experiment too... and now Max is in some kind of trouble."  
  
"I see..." You said, awkwardly, scratching your right arm at all of this. "So... why say all this now? Not before we came here?"  
  
"Well sport I didn't want to ruin this for you if nothing was gonna happen. After all, Curt might've changed or nothing might've happened. I didn't want to crush your excitement... I mean, Heck, you should've seen yourself this morning kiddo. You were practically vibrating you were so ready for this." You blushed at that even as your Uncle went on. "Peter, your excitement for this science stuff is admirable, it's great even. It matches Richard's... even if you might've gotten a bit more of that head of your from Mary. So I want to encourage you to follow your interests and make the most of both. I think that's important for someone your age... and I think it's important for you to grow into the man you're going to become.  
  
"The reason why I'm telling you all this now, kiddo, is that you've got a gift. You're sharp, you're whip smart and you've got the drive to make the use of both. You can be and do anything you want if you put your mind to it. So long as it makes you happy, your Aunt and I will back you 100%... but you've gotta be careful with that Peter. A lot of money, a lot of strength, a sharp mind... people can use them poorly. Curt's spent so much time when your mom and dad was alive fixated on the experiments that would give him back his arm and it looks like not a lot's changed... and who knows what's going to happen to Max now because of it. Curt has every bit the potential as you do to do good things for people but he chooses to use his gifts for himself. That's not the way to go about it, Peter. You can't just use your God given gifts to pursue your own ends, especially when what you can do with them can change so much... for better and worse. It's like my old man told me and your dad so long ago now.  
  
"With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

"I..." You took a moment to really mull over Uncle Ben's words. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility. You didn't exactly want to toot your own horn, especially given the gravity of what he was describing with Doctor Connors but, well, on some level you couldn't help but know that you weren't being selfish with your gifts. That you were putting them to unselfish means. Heck, you could confidently state you weren't using them for yourself at all; the Spider Powers had been put to use for the betterment of other people as a Superhero first and foremost. Money never even really entered into your mind, even if the idea of being well known as a Superhero did. Sure it was exciting and fun and you enjoyed it... but a part of that enjoyment also came from the fact that you were making a difference. That you were doing a common good...  
  
Still, you did have to pause. That wasn't the only part of that though. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility... and presumably the greater the power the greater the responsibility, right? That made sense; part of what obviously frustrated Uncle Ben about Doctor Connors was that, yes, he was pursuing selfish ends... but that he was also putting such a great mind to those ends. You flexed your fingers, the skin on the back of them having healed completely by this point. You'd spent hours yesterday in your little training hideaway in the train station, throwing punches and practicing kicks and using the remains of concrete walls and pillars to practice your form. Was... learning to punch better, to fight more efficiently, really the best use of your Super Strength and heightened speed?  
  
That didn't even get into the small burns and cuts that usually accompanied the work on the Web Formula that you poured so much time into the day before. Hours spent trying to refine the formula as best you could, adding tensile strength that would still stretch to ensure criminals wouldn't get away. All that time and effort you poured into it, testing all kinds of different additives and twists on the formula... and sure enough, late into the evening, you finally succeeded in making a stronger Webbing... but by now you were more than aware of the fact that you'd taken the current formula to its limits. You'd have to start from scratch with what discoveries you'd made if you wanted to push it further, push it harder... but...  
  
Was that the best use of your mind? One that Doctor Connors and Uncle Ben praised? It all brought you back to that talk you had with the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, looking down on you from on high, as he implored you to give it up; to put your life to other ends.  
  
You had a Great Power... but... was just saving people from crooks enough? Were you doing what you could? Sure, Vulture was dangerous but Vulture was behind bars now...  
  
You shook your head. Imagine all the people who would've got mugged or been sold drugs or would've been hurt if you hadn't been Spider-Man. Second-thinking all of that, all the good you did for those people, just because it 'might not have been enough'... that's not what Uncle Ben would've meant by this, right?  
  
Would he have even wanted you to be Spider-Man in the first place?  
  
With Great Power, right?  
  
...  
  
You sighed, turning to your Uncle Ben and giving him a smile.  
  
"I'll keep that in mind Uncle Ben, thanks... for looking out for me." Then... your Uncle did something. He smiled and reached out, ruffling your head and, for the first time tonight since you combed it up for the meeting with Doctor Connors, you really let him.  
  
"Kiddo, you don't need to thank me for that. May and I love you with all our hearts and no matter what we'd always want to be there looking out for you. We won't always be able to, of course... but by that point you'll be the man I know you're growing up to be. There isn't a thing you could to do convince me otherwise, Peter." Despite all the self doubt that had floated around in your head... hearing those words from Uncle Ben helped to clear them all up. As he started the truck in order to get the both of you home you glanced out the window at the rapidly falling stone. Maybe you weren't using your powers to their fullest potential, maybe it was the same for your mind... maybe Uncle Ben wouldn't have wanted you to be Spider-man in the first place... and maybe you were and maybe he did.  
  
However, hearing those words out of his mouth gave you a great sense of comfort and relief. Knowing that your family would always be there for you like this.  
  
Besides... you had time to figure out just how worthy your time as Spider-Man was... right?


	44. Outtake 7: White Noise

The lights.  
  
The lights were always on.  
  
Eyes open and they could see it all; every errant shadow cast against the luminescence, every beam cast off a reflective surface. Right back in, right back into his burning, irritated, heavy eyes. Eyes closed and it was like looking into a curtain of light glaring straight through his eyelids. It was constant; no matter how much he asked, no matter how much he pleaded, the lights were kept on. Under other circumstances he could've left it as poor bedside manner, uncaring nurses leaving the lights on for one reason or another, even dead on into the night, even when he should've been allowed to sleep.  
  
However, the nurses weren't at fault for this. After all, they moved to flip the switches, the cover the surfaces, to try their best to make sure that as little light there was possible. Even with the power out though, the lights were on... and even when they finally took out the bulbs entirely the light that was his own body only continued to do their work for him.  
  
The light was the first thing Max could recall when he awoke. The first thing that came to mind from his accident. The blinding flashes that overtook his gaze, of blue bolts and white arcs of pain that sent his vision dazzling and blinded him to the people who had been in that lab. Ben, the kid, Brock and the rest of them. They were there, he could remember they were there but for the longest time while the shocks ran through him he couldn't see them.  
  
The only time he could even remember what the darkness looked like anymore was from when he passed out. The bliss of black, inky darkness. When he'd woken up it'd been shattered and, God help him, Max missed it dearly. As an electrician he never thought there'd be a day he wished the darkness, that the light would just be banished.  
  
Now though... now they were always on. And they... they were keeping them on. Not the nurses, no...  
  
But the doctors.  
  
Max's gaze wrenched over from the blackened television as he could just barely hear people step into the room. His movements were... restricted. Difficult. However, he could still force his neck to turn. There they were. The doctors that were keeping these damn lights on. The hospital staff entered first; the nurses and physicians who'd been doing their best to take care of him... to no avail. No prescription could stop the pain and nothing could banish the light. They were supposed to do it. They were supposed to give him relief.  
  
"Hello Max... I'm glad to see that the procedure went well." The doc spoke slowly as Max squinted his eyes behind the non-reflective lenses that separated his eyes from the open air. 'The procedure' he called it. What a joke; as soon as he'd woken up and as soon as he'd started to get even worse the doctors had concocted this... thing that surrounded him. He could recognize some of the materials at first from touch; rubber, lots of it, and synthesized with something else. It was hard to put it together but it had this texture that... yeah, reminded him of that goop from the eel cage.  
  
He'd been screaming when he woke up and saw himself. Saw what was happening. He wanted help, he wanted them to make it all stop. To turn off the light, to stop the shocks that ran through him, faint echoes of the blinding white pain that had put him in this position in the first place. Instead they sealed him into this... [suit](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wHf7ev3NSkU/hqdefault.jpg). It had felt so utterly suffocating at first; it clamped down on him, its texture slithering over every inch of him. It felt like he'd been swallowed alive by something. They'd told him it was a 'necessary first step' if they wanted to treat him. The doctors assured him it was a temporary solution and that he'd get used to the feeling in no time. That, besides, he wouldn't even be in it long. They'd get to work on a fix for him immediately.  
  
"Feeling any better about the... containment unit, Mr. Dillon?" The other doctor said, adjusting those Goddamn specs of his like he always did.  
  
He'd gotten used to the feeling alright. Only because he couldn't feel it anymore; the sensations in his body had long gone numb, replaced by this... this feeling. It felt familiar... felt like something he'd heard so many times in his life. God, he was so tired. The lights were on constantly. Even when he closed his eyes. If he could just get some sleep he'd remember the noise, remember what this feeling sounded like in his brain...  
  
...  
  
It... it didn't matter. Either way the numb feeling in his body that replaced all sensation at the very least made this thing feel less suffocating. Now? Now it was just hard to move around in; like he was bending around in rubber cement.  
  
"When are the treatments gonna start..." Was his only response, the two doctors looking at each other for a moment before... before Connors stepped up.  
  
"Soon Max. We've got to run the data from the accident through a few more processes, try to understand what exactly happened so we can know where to begin. After that though we can start experimenting with some ideas we have and then move on to-"  
  
"When Doc." He repeated again, twisting his head around just barely, the rubber and material of the suit squeaking ever so slightly. He still could barely hear him; the suit alone wasn't the cause of that. It was this ringing in his ear, constantly shuffling, constantly shifting, just... like a rush of water over a long drop. If the light didn't keep him from sleeping then all this Goddamn noise would have done on its own! He couldn't even hear the rest of the hospital at this point!  
  
"... Soon Max, soon. I promise." Curt reiterated, Max just staring at him before the other doctor, Warren, stepped forward.  
  
"It's important that we get this right, Max. Unlike with the eels you're a much more... sensitive matter. We can't afford to rush with your treatment else who knows what'll happen."  
  
"Yeah..." Max muttered, eyes staring at the both of them through his goggles. "God forbid you rush into this... something terrible might happen to somebody." The buzzing in his ears got louder. The lights got brighter. The numbness coursing through him gave way for a moment. For a moment he could _feel_ something... something on the tip of his tongue.  
  
"Max... please. It was an accident. Just... try to relax, okay?" Connors spoke up, drawing Max's gaze for a moment. The sheer pleading expression on his face got Max to calm down. The buzzing lowered, the light dim and the numbness returned. He was still scowling, he was sure of it even if he couldn't feel it on his face... but he nodded.  
  
"Fine." Curt, short and to the point. Connors scratched the back of his neck, Warren still looking mildly affronted by the bite back before Connors grabbed the man by the shoulder and rushed him off. Muttered something about getting back to work. The nurses went back over him; checking his suit, refilling his IV and leaving a tray of food next to him. He looked over at it and grabbed up some of it... the mouth slot on the mask of his suit opened up and, as he ate, he couldn't help but grimace. It didn't even taste burnt, which the crunches that barely reached his ears told him it was rapidly becoming. It just... it just didn't taste like fucking anything. Except... except that feeling... except...  
  
"ARGH!" Frustrated that he couldn't think of it still Max tossed the burnt up remains of the sandwich back into the plastic tray. After laying back in the hospital bed the young man reached over for a remote and turned on the television in his room...  
  
All at once, as he stared at the illuminated screen, Max Dillon's thought snapped into place. The ringing in his ear, the feeling coursing through his body, even the taste of that food. Even the shape of the light that burrowed their ways into his eyes. At that moment, staring at the television screen, he could put a word to all of it. This feeling that encompassed everything but still felt like nothing. That feeling that overwhelmed him after the pain had burnt away his nerves, ripped at his throat and consumed him in its totality. The feeling that had built brighter, louder and all the more encompassing as more and more time passed. That kept him awake ever since he awoke and forbade him from the peace of rest. That kept him experiencing all of this every moment since.  
  
[Static.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0I4mTEdAf8)


	45. The Birth Of Electro

"Goodness gracious, the snow just won't stop coming down..." You nodded at that as you set down some snacks around the table while watching the television. The channel, as per usual on New Years Eve, was changed to local ABC News affiliate so that you two could watch the festivities while the ball was preparing to drop. Well, you two and Uncle Ben; you didn't exactly have the social circle that liked to stay up late and watch the ball drop, Ned just liked the fireworks but didn't see much point in going out partying (or had the appetite for it) so you both just usually settled, year in and year out, staying in with family to watch the ball drop. It was fine, of course, and the display was always amazing. If there was one thing New York could be counted on when it came to big holiday displays it was the ball dropping on New Years.  
  
Though Uncle Ben was quite taken by the Empire State Building lighting up Red, White and Blue on the 4th of July too and the fireworks that accompanied it.  
  
Tonight was set to be more of the same in that regard; the three of you sitting down and watching the fireworks. However, tonight was different. Uncle Ben wasn't actually home yet; he'd gone to the hospital earlier in the day to spend time with Max. Apparently Max wasn't being let out of his hospital room, outside of the odd test here and there, and was getting antsy. Uncle Ben, of course, wanted to provide some company for the young man he'd become friends with from work so he'd been driving out there the past several days. Basically as soon as they'd let him. He was supposed to come home tonight, of course, to see the ball drop but he figured he'd give Max some New Years company too...  
  
He wasn't back yet, though, and Aunt May's comment had to thinking you knew why. The news showed it too; the conditions out there in the city were abysmal. It wasn't enough to cancel the ball drop... yet, but you'd heard that the fireworks were being second guessed. They'd probably still go off but who knew. The roads looked... okay where the news was but it was likely because of how well taken care of the streets in that part of Manhattan were, combined with all the people.  
  
"Think that's keeping Uncle Ben locked up in Manhattan?" You asked as Aunt May nodded, closing the curtain herself as she turned to face you with a sigh.  
  
"I do think so. His truck might have those tires installed and be 4-Wheel but, in this weather, it's not just about him. It's about all the other drivers. Plus all the traffic that must be out to watch the festivities... I do hope he makes it back in time to watch with us. It'd be a shame if he couldn't." May remarked, causing you to smile as you got up.  
  
"I know but, hey, look on the bright side! If Uncle Ben hasn't called yet then that probably just means that he's still on his way. If he can't make it then he'll call to tell us. Either way, I'm sure-" Aunt May's phone started to ring as you said this, the both of you laughing out loud at the timing of it all. "See what I mean? That's probably him now." May plucked her phone out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID; sure enough, Uncle Ben's number.  
  
"Oh, you were right Peter. Probably means he won't be able to make it home in this weather if he's calling, like you said. Oh well, at least we'll know where he is for the night." With that May plucked her phone out of her pocket and accepted the call, bringing it up to her ear. "Hello dear; having a little trouble navigating traffic?" May's tone was light and jovial as you moved to sit back down and eat some snacks though you stopped midway when May paused, her brow furrowing. "Ben, dear, slow down a bit. Take a breath."  
  
...  
  
"WHAT?! Are you okay?" You shot up at that, May holding the phone up closer to her ear. "Oh... oh that's good at least. That shouldn't be too bad... good thing we saved up too. If that's the case then... Be, Ben. No. You're not going out again, I don't care... what?" May asked, sounding perplexed as she took a breath. "Just stay at the hospital Ben. I'll be right over." With that Aunt May turned off her phone, a worried expression on her face as she started gathering up her purse.  
  
"Aunt May? What's wrong?" You asked, seeing the concern on your Aunt's face as she looked at you, clearly thinking things over.  
  
"Peter..." May looked back out the curtain, frowning as she did so. "Stay here and just keep watching alright? I'm going to drive out to the hospital to check on your Uncle; he's gotten a few burns that the doctors are looking at right now."  
  
"What?" You asked, jumping off the couch.  
  
"It's okay Peter. Ben says they're only first degree... the doctors don't sound too worried but they're keeping him over to be sure. Just wait here, dear."  
  
"What happened though? How did Uncle Ben get hurt?" May bit her lip, fishing around in her purse for her car's keys as she sighed.  
  
"Max... Max ran away from the hospital Peter. He ran and they have no idea where he's gone in all this mess. In the rush out he hurt your Uncle and a few others." You felt your gut sink at that as May reached over and kissed her head. "It's going to be okay though. The police are looking for him to try and bring him back safe and your Uncle is _fine,_ Peter. Just try and relax while I go to check on things." You nodded slowly at that, but you frowned.  
  
"Why can't I come too?"  
  
"Peter, it's not getting any better out. I want you here where I know you'll be safe. God help me if I had to worry about both of you tonight." Aunt May gave a short laugh, the woman clearly trying to lighten the mood as she made for the door. "Everything will be fine Peter. Don't worry." You watched as May left the house and closed the door behind her, heard the car engine start up before she pulled out of the driveway. You leaned up against the couch, folding your arms slightly at that as you took all that in. Max was gone, Ben was hurt and... what? How did this all happen? Why did this all happen...  
  
You turned back to the screen, the news cutting back away to news of how the winter storm was affecting New York. All that traffic, all that mess, all those people...  
  
How could they find Max in all of that?  
  
How could it all just end up alright?

Holy Hell it was cold outside!  
  
You shivered as you swung through the skyline of New York City, keeping about as low to the ground as you could while being safely removed from the people, and more importantly potential police. The snow just was not stopping and the winds were blasting you colder and colder, making you feel more and more stiff as you went along. The physical activity was keeping you warm enough inside of your thermals to be sure but, man, was this weather intense. The news said something about it maybe even getting worse? You could scarcely believe that with how bad the weather was already...  
  
Agh, focus! You could think about how numb your butt felt later, right now you were supposed to be scanning the throngs of people as you went. You'd managed to get about as close to the hospital as you thought you reasonably could; no surprise the police were staying close to there in case any of them found Max so they could get him back to his room. From there you just started swinging about, using your superior mobility with the Web Shooters to try and move around the city and spot any trace of Max. Man, if you were cold in this weather you could only imagine what Max must've felt like! The dude couldn't have been out in more than a hospital nightgown.  
  
Which, you know, you hoped would make him easier to find but nothing, nada! You couldn't spot the guy anywhere! Which was just perfect, you know? Not only was Uncle Ben hurt somehow but now Max was probably out freezing to death because you were having such a hard time picking him out... but how could you not?! There's millions of people on Manhattan alone and so many of them were moving about to get ready for the ball drop that picking one guy out, even if he was dressed like a crazy hospital patient, was like picking a needle out of a haystack!  
  
You'd even taken to checking alleys to make sure he didn't crawl back in there to find some cardboard box or open fire to cradle himself next to. God, if you didn't find him soon who knew if anyone would be able to find him at all...  
  
...  
  
Okay.  
  
Okay calm down.  
  
You had to calm down. Freaking out like this wasn't going to help anyone. You shook your head, taking a deep breath as you swung onto a lamp post and stuck there, knees bent and ready to spring back up and out as you took a look around. Max was out here somewhere and you had the best chance of finding him with how fast you could swing around and from how high up. The police couldn't put out their choppers in this kind of weather so it was really all down to you. You'd find him. You just... just needed to not get distracted. By Uncle Ben, by how your worries, by the ice cold nipping at your every bit of flesh, by-  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAH!"  
  
... People screaming. Your head immediately twitched over to the sound in question; a corner shop. You'd noticed that there were police parked outside before but you'd thought they were there managing traffic or keeping an eye on the people heading toward the ball drop. Not even close, it turns out; they were all standing on high alert, braced behind their vehicle, as a lot of civilians were running out of the shop. The lights inside flickered on and off and on and off.  
  
Oh _man_.  
  
No no no. This was the worst timing. Not some robbery, not some dumb jackass trying to hold up a store full of people on New Years Eve of all times. Not now, not here! You shook your head; you had better things to do! Max needed you, Max needed your help. You didn't have time. You sighed as you stood up on the lamp post, getting ready to swing away as someone ran out, the people very much obviously running from him as the police leveled their arms.  
  
See? It was fine. The dude didn't even look like he was armed; some goober who probably got his gun knocked out of his hand quickly. Just some guy in a coat, a hat and some kind of [mask and goggles ](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/vsbattles/images/4/49/Electro_Masked_SSM.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20190904193446)to protect him from the weather... or, considering the circumstances, to hide his identity from the cameras. The police had him cornered. He had nowhere to go.  
  
"This is the police! You've picked the wrong night to rob some folks, creep! Now get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head."  
  
See. It was fine. No need to swing in as Spidey. Just leave it to the police an-  
  
 **"GET BACK!"**  
  
The dude roared. He swung his arm at the police, a pulsing light emanating from his hand as he did so. Sparks crackled along the cruiser the police had ducked behind... and then-  
  
 ***BOOM***  
  
Your eyes went wide behind your mask as the hood of the vehicle blew, the cops being flung by the force of the explosion as, to you, it sounded like the engine just blew a gasket, flames erupting from the now open hood of the cruiser as the cops collapsed back on the ground. People screamed and yelled more as they ran, more sparks flying from various electrical bits and bobs surrounding the area, lights flickering on and off as the sparks flew. All the while the... well, what you'd previously taken for a just a simple crook stood there, hands at the ready.  
  
Holy smokes. How did...  
  
...  
  
Shoot.

Aaaagh! Great Power, Great Responsibility and all that. Can't exactly just stiff Uncle Ben like that literally in the same week. Still you just really didn't have time for this! You fired off a Webline at a nearby building, taking a wide arc of a swing around the crook as he kept on threatening the people around him with whatever was in his hands. As you landed on a lamppost just behind and above him you fired off a Webline, tagging the crook in the back before he could even realize what was up.  
  
"You have a permit for those fireworks, Sparky or would that be why the cops showed up?" You watched him turn in place to look up at you and, surely, he must've seen the Webline dangling from your hand as you gave him a short wave.  
  
 **"Argh! You?! Of course, of all people to show up!"** The criminal shouted in frustration as he reached up for your Webline even as you started to hoist him up. You were going to get him up here, maybe smack him around a bit and then leave him tied up. Short, simple, to the point. You didn't have the time to... oh hey he actually managed to snap your Webbing. Okay so this guy wasn't quite as twiggy as he looked... then again getting a better look at him he actually seemed pretty puffed up under all those winter clothes.  
  
 **"Look, just beat it! I just wanted a cup of coffee and some clothes! I don't need you or the cops on my case! So beat it before I start actually getting angry!"** The way he was shouting... you know, you think he was lying about not 'actually' being angry. Plus the way he was threateningly waving his hands about, the glow in them directed your way and... oof, wow, you could actually 'feel' something from there. Kind of gave you tingles all across your skin. Not in a good way either.  
  
"Man, dude, using some kind of super weapon to rob a coffee place and get some clothes? You know, at least Vulture had an elegance to his gimmick, so far you only seem to have one trick. Blast, blast and more blasting." Which, speaking of, now was the time to try and do something about that before he caused more trouble.  
  
You quickly fired off two more Weblines and tag the guy's hands, the crook having been so distracted by his ranting at you that he didn't even move to dodge. He roared in frustration, waving his hands back and forth to try and forcibly free himself as you just kept a strong grip on him.  
  
"Which reminds me; I should probably go ahead and take these toys away from you. I mean, I get that the holidays are stressful but you really need to keep this explosive temper to yourself and not inflict it on, you know, cars, people, the-"  
  
 **"SHUT UP!"** The crook tensed up and, underneath the goo of the Webbing, you could see bright spots beginning to emerge from within the gunk. First sign of trouble? The fact that your Webbing around his hands suddenly combusted, flames erupting and dissolving the Webbing. At first you might've thought it was some kind of heat or fire...  
  
Then you felt the electrical currents shoot up into your arms from your Web Shooters. You screamed in pain as your entire body went rod stiff, muscles clenching as a whole Hell of a lot of power suddenly charged itself straight through your system. You barely kept your footing on the metal lamp post beneath you, making you realize that this charge had actually gotten your Wall Crawling to give out for a moment. When the charge stopped your fingers, hands and wrists felt positively numb, like you'd jammed them into an electrical socket, while the rest of you felt like you'd been given the biggest static shock of your life...  
  
Ow...  
  
You shook your hand as you looked back down and got a much clearer look at the guy's hands as your Webbing fell off and the glow died down... it wasn't a gun. It wasn't a weapon. It was his hands... or, maybe the gloves on his hands? You furrowed his brow as you took a better look at all of him; what you'd mistaken for a beefy body... was it some kind of suit? You jumped away from the lamppost to keep from getting shocked by it should he choose to zap it and, as you approached the ground you got a much closer look at his face. What you'd mistaken for goggles and a ski-mask had turned out to be some kind of helmet...  
  
Great.  
  
Just great!  
  
Some other crackpot villain in a suit running around causing chaos! Some guy following in Vulture's footsteps or in the Prowlers! How did he even get a suit that could put out that much power!? Why would he just use it for... AGH!  
  
"I cannot begin to describe how not in the mood I am for this." You remarked as you raised your Web Shooters and took careful aim. You had a new objective in mind; get this guy out of his suit bit by bit. Even if you had to peel it off of him.  
  
"What the hell was your goal anyway?" You asked as you fired off both Weblines and tried to tag the guy's head. Step one; both Vulture and Prowler had some kind of mechanism in their helmets to help them. For Vulture it was a HUD and for Prowler it was all kinds of instruments to help him see in the dark. No doubt this creep had something to help him aim or manage the power he was outputting. Time to put an end to that. The guy did manage to duck out of the way of one Webline but you'd accounted for that as the second had been aimed at where you felt like he could reasonably dodge. The screen of his helmet got splatted as he cried out in frustration, reaching his hands up for the Webbing. Oh no, not this time!  
  
"Was this your New Years resolution? Terrify people, blow up cars, call it a day?" You immediately gave a solid pull and could feel the helmet give. You didn't have time for this! Who knew where Max could be at this time of night, who knew what kind of trouble he could be in?! Yet here you were wasting your time on this creep! You gave another solid tug and, with a loud 'pop' the helmet gave, soaring through the air as you furrowed your brow. Okay, one part of that suit of his off, now you could focus on... focus on...  
  
On...  
  
Oh man.  
  
With the helmet off, immediately, you had to wince to try to not be momentarily blinded by the bright flash of light. One you got more adjusted to it you could see it arcing off of his head in dozens of directions at once; electricity sparking to and fro throughout the air, zapping the stray snowflakes that got near and reducing them to little more than steam. As he lowered his hands from his face you could see the same effect; his entire face was yellow but didn't seem entirely solid; it was as if the same energy sparking from the top of his head made up his entire face... the same energy emanating from his hands.  
  
Electric blue eyes surrounded by dark shadows, or what qualified as dark shadows, that made up his features glared back at you as pure white teeth grit themselves as he sneered at you.  
  
 **"You shouldn't of done that..."**  
  
He flexed, sparks flying off of his hands and off the top of his hands in random arcs. Lights around you blew up and those that didn't flashed, metal was sparking from the sheer amount of power in the air; even jolting you slightly through your Web Shooters. This guy... this guy wasn't wearing a suit...  
  
This wasn't a suited villain. This was a Supervillain.  
  
[ ** _"You_ _really shouldn't have done that."_**](https://media.giphy.com/media/hSZASROggzU0U/giphy.gif)

"Woah!" You cried out in surprise as you jumped a little bit, barely avoiding one of the arcs of electricity that were now pouring off of this guy. His head exposed to the open air the blasts he'd been sending your way, literal arcs of lightning, were now cascading around his general area, grounding themselves in the concrete, snow and metal as they flew about. Your Spider-Sense was going wild but roared the loudest when, for a brief moment, you could see another random arc beginning to form in the air. A quick jump saw you avoid getting roasted as it cratered into the ground and melted some snow. Okay, this guy wasn't just some run of the mill robber with good tech. He was, like you thought, a for real Supervillain. An electric one too to boot!  
  
"So I gotta ask; is a bug zapper joke more offensive to you or to me? I mean sure spiders are arachnids, but it's the spirit of it, you know?" You started to spin his helmet around by the strand of Webbing you were holding it by, building up momentum as you immediately started thinking of a strategy. Okay so very obviously you didn't want to get near this guy. The bug zapper thing might've been a quip but, man, if the guy was sparking like a live wire. If you got in too close who knows what would happen; could very well fry you just from proximity, especially in your costume. Had to keep some distance. Thankfully this suit of his seemed to do a good job of containing his power so you could probably use it to clobber him without much worry of the shock traveling up your Webline again.  
  
 **"AGH! DO YOU EVER SHUT UP?!"** You leaped out of the way of the stranger's assault, blurs of electricity arcing through the air that your Spider-Sense was screaming at you to avoid. You winced as you felt one bolt in particularly basically skate its way across your spine. You could practically feel the hairs on the back of your neck standing straight up while little numbing shocks moved through your body. Still you landed on your feet after a particularly impressive flip and kept right on swinging that Webline around, a grin under your mask as you shook your head.  
  
"'Fraid not that. Goes against my code of ethics, you see." You quickly spun the mask around and, finally, when you were sure you had your shot you took your swings. The first... well, went wide out of the way. The second almost got him but then he took a step to the side... and the third was another dud.  
  
...  
  
"Okay give me a break, this is the first time I've done something like this." You grumbled as the crook just growled at you, charging up his hands again. You dodged another bolt of lightning and while doing so you saw his eyes watching your movements before glancing down at the ground. With a loud cry he blasted the ground with those electric shocks of his... to no avail. "Woof. Nice try dude, I get the general idea but take it from somebody who knows a thing or two about electricity; snow doesn't conduct it, chief." The stranger just grimaced at you again, clear frustration in his gaze as he kept right on blasting at the ground. You shook your head and started spinning the helmet around again. This time, this time you'd get him.  
  
"Anyway; I'm kind of hoping over-analyzing the whole 'bug zapper joke' earlier means no one else can use it. Just wanted to get it out of the way early, you know? It's way too obvious, don't you think electric boogaloo?" You quickly swung the helmet around again and, much to your surprise and the stranger's lack of breath you managed to swing it right into his gut. Not wanting to give up on this spectacular turn of events you swung up and around, bringing it up from the ground to clock him just underneath the chin before swinging back around to hammer it right into his chest. "Woohoo! Knew I just needed a warm up round!" You declared with excitement; you probably would've fist-pumped if this was the time or the place. The stranger just glared hatefully at you as he started to blast the ground again.  
  
"Come on dude, I just gave you that advice. Snow doesn't-"  
  
 **"I know..."** Growled out through a pained grimace the crook just locked eyes with you for a moment before, suddenly, you felt a shock run up through your body. This one wasn't nearly as hard to take as the last one but still the sensation of electricity coursing up your leg and through your body left you choking. You let go of the Webline the second it caught fire, sending the helmet crashing into a nearby police car as, finally, you were able to stumble back once your muscles stopped locking up. What the... how did he... snow doesn't...  
  
You glanced down at the ground and, beneath your mask, your eyes widened. A pool of water had formed in the spots where your feet had previously been, a liquid shine running across the surface of the snow and under it as electricity continued to spark even after the stranger had stopped his attack.  
  
 **"It can melt it, though. Now get out of my way before I really have to get nasty..."**  
  
That had been his plan. He was melting enough snow to make a conductive layer of water to shock you with. While snow couldn't conduct electricity even non-conductive materials could be heated up by the electricity coursing through them. Between how hot the concrete must've been from his assault and the sheer amount of power he was pumping through the snow there was more than enough for that plan to work. Okay, couldn't just take this guy as another drop out. Had to actually play this one smart. Before you could retrieve your weapon from the police car, though, you definitely had to get off the street; way too much snow on the ground, he could easily perform that little trick again.  
  
"Alright, gotta admit, that was pretty sharp. Nice use of your powers." You said, tongue-in-cheek, as you fired a Webline and swung around with a leap, landing on a nearby stone wall of a building. This stuff shouldn't conduct the electricity unlike all the metal around you and it wasn't covered in snow or soaked to boot. All good things from where you were standing. "Which, really, I gotta ask; how'd you get your powers anyway? I'll tell you my origin story if you tell me yours!" You loudly declared as the stranger below you just growled in frustration.  
  
 **"Don't you dare make light of that!"** He yelled, furious, as he sent another arc of electrical shocks your way. Looks like you struck a nerve! Might be a good time to press that, maybe make him a little sloppy so that you could find another opening to clobber him with the helmet. You ducked, dipped, dived and dodged out of the way of the various electrical arcs, landing back on the wall with nothing but a rather large amount of static electricity sparking off of you to say that he'd been anywhere near close to striking you. With a trigger of your Webbing you webbed up his helmet and pulled it back up your way, grinning under your mask as you started spinning it again.  
  
"Come on, I'm not making fun of you, I'm being serious. For real, man, we're getting along so well! The sparks are flying and we're making a real connection. Come on, share the story with me electro." The crook grasped at his head and yelled in frustration as he swung his arm again, another bolt of lightning deftly dodged on your part... as he started to run. Oh no, no, no. This just wouldn't do. "Come on! I promise I'm friendly when you get to know me! In my name and everything!" You chased after him and did your best to stay out of the field that still seemed to surround him. You took a wild swing with the helmet when you thought your Webbing would be just in range and, sure enough, you would've gotten him if he didn't stumble his way out of the way. He looked back at you, those bright blue electric eyes so angry and hateful as he grit his teeth, the sparks flying off of him fast and loose. Well, at least you were up here and not anywhere-  
  
 **"LEAVE ME ALONE!"** You barely had time to react to your Spider Sense when, suddenly, this guy's field just expanded out of nowhere. Arcs of electricity flying every which direction and hitting any number of things all at once as it expanded bigger and bigger. You barely avoided one and watched as the arcs of electricity basically blew up car engines, ignited oil flying all about the street as each went up. The nearby stores that hadn't been the sight of his initial robbery had their front doors shattered, the glass giving under the immense charge being ran through them as you could see the lights in neighboring buildings begin to flutter and then, finally, die.  
  
You heard glass shatter and glanced into a nearby window and watched as numerous light bulbs immediately burst, fire and sparks of electricity and glass flying about as the lights in the room died out... and then fires started.  
  
Distracted as you were by all of this one bolt managed to catch you... and God it was the worst one yet. Right in the chest and, immediately, you felt every muscle in your body lock up. This time your feet, thankfully, were still sticking to the stone surface and though you'd later theorize it was because the stone wasn't conductive unlike the metal you were nowhere near that thought right now. Blinding, flashing pain rocked your body as you jerked around, the Webbing in your hand naturally combusted again under the sheer amount of power coursing through it, the helmet falling to the ground with a clattering clack. You could smell it too; some parts of your costume were probably being burnt up under the assault. Then again it was hard to tell if it was your costume or some of your hair.  
  
Finally though your muscles relaxed and you collapsed down onto a hand and a knee, still sticking to the side of the building as you took deep, gasping breaths. Desperate to refill your lungs from the lack of breath after the lockup you still saw the stranger standing there, glaring at you with his hands sparking out of control. You looked around... and you saw darkness. The immediate buildings around you had gone completely dark and, way further down the street than you'd like to admit, you could see the lights flickering on and off from the power surge. The only thing providing light to this section of the streets now were some of the building fires inside the buildings. They should've been in a position to be put out. The Fire Department should've known to be well on their way...  
  
But it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why neither would be true; alarms weren't going off and sprinkle systems weren't activating. This... this guy's attack probably shorted these buildings out entirely. You watched the fires burn brighter by the second as your eyes went back down to this crook...  
  
Would the firefighters even be able to arrive with all this New Years Eve foot and literal traffic clogging the streets? Were there people hiding out from the fight inside these buildings? Were they in danger...  
  
Shit.

...  
  
You took a deep breath through your mask and immediately flipped around on the roof, Wall Crawling as fast as your arms and legs could take you so you could open a window and slip into one of the apartments. You didn't have time for this crook right now. If he wanted to run then fine, let him run... but you had bigger fish to fry right now. If any of these fires got out of hand then there'd be a lot more damage to worry about. So you left him out there in the cold while you got down to work; the first apartment you went into you immediately did your best to smother the fire under a blanket. The next you tossed a flaming pillow out into the street, having it land in a pile of snow to extinguish it. Next you grabbed a fire extinguisher from a wall and...  
  
Well, the pattern continued. You wall crawled, you swung, you jumped, you moved as fast as you could through the buildings in order to put out all of these fires before they could seriously hurt people or destroy their property. You passed by several civilians who were doing their best to just run out of the building while you went about your work and by the time you swung over to the other to check it over a lot of people had filtered out onto the street. They were worried about the fires spreading and worried about the possible risk to life but, well, you were handling that. None of these blazes would get going before you'd get to them and snuff then out. You were going to make sure of that. You saw the civilians trying to make a call on their phones, presumably to the Fire Department but maybe to the Police but, well, they couldn't. Pretty easy to guess why too; that asshole probably shorted out their phones.  
  
Speaking of you noticed that almost as soon as you left him alone and as soon as you ducked your head out a building to move around to another floor he had been gone, taken his helmet with him to boot. You sighed but continued the hard work until you were finally satisfied. Your muscles ached, not just from the effort but also from all the electricity that had been spiked through them. You'd probably be feeling this for days at least. A good night's rest would at least get you well rested but, man, these burns and all this pain was probably going to take a bit to heal up.  
  
As you finished up here, sirens beginning to sound in the distance you heaved a tired sigh as you fired off a Webline and started swinging off. Man you were just so tired. You didn't even really have the energy to keep looking for Max, as awful as that was to say. You needed rest... you could start again tomorrow morning when you actually got some sleep. For now though you needed a bed. You reached into your pocket... no pocket. No phone in pocket. Right, of course, you were just tired. You carried your phone in your backpack... a backpack you left at home in your hurry to get out and look for Max...  
  
...  
  
You sighed but kept swinging. It was probably for the best; if you'd brought your phone around you probably would've been looking for a replacement phone in the morning. That guy's electrical power was no joke. You stopped for a moment to take a breath and stretch out your muscles; it was going to be a pain to swing back to Queens but, at this point that was your only option. You turned to look off into the distance as the ball got ready to drop. Well... as bad as things were right now... they couldn't get much worse right? Plus it was a New Year, new possibilities. Sure 2018 was a bit rough, even if the new powers were fantastic, but 2019 was just around the corner.  
  
"Ten." You muttered to yourself as you saw the ball in the distance start to drop. All new possibilities with your all new powers. 2019 would be okay... you'd find Max tomorrow and then put this electric guy down. It'd be fine.  
  
"Ni-" Before you could even finish... well, suddenly, the ball's lights flickered, a power surge hitting the city. You looked around, seeing the lights flickering on and off, some dying here and there, before all the lights turned back on... the ball stopped though, its drop paused by the sudden lack of power...  
  
Suddenly you felt a bitter cold wind hit you, snow piling on the back of your costume, as your eyes looked through your mask at some of the spots that just didn't have power right now...  
  
...  
  
"Oh no."

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You slipped in through your window, groaning in pain as you did so. You quickly undressed from your costume and set it down on the bed. Just in case anyone looked in your window after you'd managed to sneakily slip in they wouldn't see you dressing out of the costume, at least. As you flipped on the lights to pick out some sleeping clothes you started looking over your costume. You frowned a bit; some parts of it were singed and some of the material was scrunched up from the electrical current going through it but, hey, by the looks of it most of the electricity had gone straight into you...  
  
Which made you moan in some pain when you looked into your mirror. Unclasping the Web Shooters you saw two rings of burns around your wrists from where the heat had most dissipated from the electricity traveling up into your Web Shooter from the Webline. Yeah, gonna need something to cover that. You saw numerous electrical burns across your body too with one just making you wince hard; right on your chest from where the last attack landed was a patch of raw, flaking skin. Your healing factor was already putting in the hard work of trying to fix you up but holy smokes that not only looked painful but, adrenaline now leaving your system, it was painful.  
  
Well... if there was ever an answer to 'was being Spider-Man necessary', you suppose this was as good a one as any. No way the police could've dealt with that crook... and now that Vulture wasn't just a one off you couldn't help but worry about stuff like this happening. Especially considering the electric jerk was still on the street. Looked like Spider-Man was definitely needed... your powers were needed. Despite how frustrated you were that he got away you could at least breath a sigh of relief over two things; you'd stopped people from getting hurt in the fires and you stopped the crook from seriously hurting anyone else or the cops. You could take that as a win even if you didn't manage to find Max tonight.  
  
You groaned as you rubbed your head. Yeah, Max. You'd need to go find him tomorrow... but then you needed to also find this electric clown again as soon as possible. He was putting people's lives in danger in this weather. The longer you waited the more people might die under the circumstances. He had to go down... but you also had to save Max. Gah! Of all the times for another Supervillain to show up, why now?  
  
In the end you sighed; the sooner you got to sleep the sooner you could rest back up. The sooner you slept, the sooner your body could just go on auto-pilot and start fixing you up as much as it could before sunrise. Then you could get to work looking for Max and looking to clobber the crook. You'd probably need gloves though, big old rubber ones. While you thought about where to get some you decided that you'd get some burn lotion for yourself... after you took a hot shower to warm back up. As you moved to go to the bathroom... you noticed your phone. That's right you'd left it behind in your hurry to go find Max. You had a missed call from-  
  
"Shoot! Aunt May!" You quickly dived for the phone and dialed your aunt back, jumping up and down a bit in worry as the dial tone went on. Come on. Pick up, pick up, pick up...  
  
 _"Hello? Peter?"_  
  
"Yeah Aunt May, it's me! Sorry for not answering..." You checked the call and winced, "-uh, twenty minutes ago. I kind of fell asleep sometime after you guys left." You said awkwardly as Aunt May breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
 _"That's okay dear. I was a little worried that something else had happened. Thank you for calling me when you woke up."_ You nodded at that and moved to speak but Aunt May beat you to the punch. _"Before you ask, Ben's fine. Say hello Ben."  
  
"Hey there kiddo, how you doing?" _The amount of relief that immediately went through you hearing Ben's voice just caused you to relax. Okay, it was all good.  
  
"Hey there Uncle Ben. I'm fine! What about you, are you okay?" You asked, worried, as your uncle just chuckled on the phone.  
  
 _"Yes Peter, I'm fine, like May said. Doctors are just keeping me over to make sure nothing ended up happening with this old ticker here."_ You nodded at that but that raised your concerns.  
  
"What happened Uncle Ben? How did you get hurt? What happened... where did Max go?" Maybe your uncle knew something? Maybe Uncle Ben knew where Max would've gone or what happened to him in the chaos that ended up hurting Ben? If you could get more information this then maybe you could find Max more easily tomorrow. Maybe...  
  
...  
  
Uncle Ben was seriously quiet, you just noticed.  
  
"Uncle Ben?" You intoned, causing Ben to sigh.  
  
 _"Pete. It was Max that got me hurt like this. Not on purpose, mind you. He's... agh. It's hard to describe."_  
  
Horror donned on you, slowly but surely. The way Uncle Ben described the containment suit that Doctor Connors and Doctor Warren had made for Max, the strange electrical interference that now seemed to radiate off of him even when only a sliver of his suit was opened up. The way his eyes glowed under the mask... the bright light. The power, the shock that ran through Ben when Max's temper seemed to finally crack. Uncle Ben was being kept at the hospital to make sure the shock didn't do any harm to his heart. That was why they were keeping him there...  
  
Meanwhile Max left with a revolving series of lights going on and off from a power surge following him.  
  
You couldn't help but grimace when they told you that he'd apparently been seen having some kind of fight with 'The Spider-Man'.  
  
 _"I feel awful about it. Max's temper has been... well, deteriorating. The doctors have been saying he can't sleep, basically can't drink or eat. They're worried and it's just been gettin' worse, kiddo. I hoped he wouldn't hurt anyone else tonight but... well, sounds like he did. The police they brought here are fine but nobody knows where the Spider guy's gone. They're not sure where Max is either; even searching around spots going through brownouts isn't helpin' much... even when they find him he... well, you know."_  
  
"Y-Yeah, I get the picture Uncle Ben." You mutter as Aunt May took back the phone.  
  
 _"Peter, please take care of the house till tomorrow morning. I'm going to stay over tonight with your Uncle. If they let me take him home tomorrow we'll be back then but if not then I'll just come back and make you some breakfast dear. Take care of everything, alright dear?"_  
  
"Yeah, I will Aunt May." You said, rapping your knuckles against your forehead. Stupid. So _stupid.  
  
"Happy New Year kiddo, sorry it went so rough."  
  
"Yes, Happy New Year, Peter."_  
  
"Happy New Year Aunt May, Uncle Ben. I'll either see you guys both tomorrow or talk to you tomorrow..." You hung up the phone after that, slapping your hand against your forehead as you let your head fall back against the wall...  
  
Well.  
  
At least your choice between looking for the electric guy and looking for Max got easier...


	46. Thundersnow

God, you honestly didn't think it could get any colder but, boy howdy, was the weather proving you wrong tonight. You shivered as you swung through the Manhattan skyline, backpack slung over your shoulder as you made the approach to the Connors' lab. When you'd really sat down and had a hard think about it the whole thing was pretty damn obvious. Max was confused, in a lot of pain and had these new powers overtaking him and, according to Ben, wasn't taking it well. Where else would he go but to the source of these powers, the place where he was supposed to be 'fixed'. You'd camped out around the lab a couple times the past two nights, keeping an eye out for Max in case he arrived. He hadn't shown up, yet, but he was still on Manhattan; the conflicts with the police and the brownouts were evidence of that.  
  
He was going to come here sooner or later. You knew that. You just had to be ready for it. You pulled your backpack off of your shoulder, setting it down in front of you as you started fishing through it. As you dipped your arm in and a bit of the fabric brushed a still sore part of your skin you winced, bringing it back up to rub at it lightly, feeling the faint outlines of peeled skin underneath your costume...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"Agh, dude."  
  
"Not so great back there either, huh?"  
  
"Yeah just kind of... bleh, peeling off. Crawled up past your shoulder." You winced a bit as you leaned forward, feeling some fresh skin be peeled off along with some dead stuff as Ned gagged a bit behind you.  
  
"Please, please don't throw up." You begged, shaking your head as Ned just gave a short cough.  
  
"It's fine dude, it's fine. Just dry heaving." You heard Ned choke back a bit as you yourself just went ahead and kept peeling some of the skin from your arms. The scarring had healed up over the evening you had rested since your fight with Max. While there was still signs of the damage done it was shrinking day by day; lightning patterns scattered about from spits where you'd been directly hit fading away and the major strikes at your chest, including a big old mess of pale, fresh skin and some remaining cream you'd rubbed in. That had been the stuff you'd been able to take care of yourself... but of course there was also some scarring on your back that just rubbed up against your costume the wrong way.  
  
Made you itch real badly. So, in the end, you placed a call and had a chat with Ned...  
  
He'd, begrudgingly, agreed to help with this. Which you had completely understood his hesitance toward doing so; this was _super gross._  
  
"Yeesh, how do people with actual burns get this done. It's so nasty." Ned commented idly as you just heaved a sigh, clenching your hand against your knee as you ground your teeth slightly; an extra bit of fresh skin had gone with that last bit of dead scar tissue.  
  
"I assume by it taking a lot longer; theirs probably more naturally peels and flakes off before the skin even fully and totally heals. Here it's happening all at once." You thought, idly, as you finished applying some cream to the last bit of your forearm, rubbing it in real good to help this entire process along.  
  
"I guess that makes sense. Guess healing way faster than you should can have its own drawbacks. Still, doesn't look like you'll scar at least." Ned commented, quickly jogging to his bathroom to wash off his hands again. He'd taken the trip a few times now and would probably give it another go before you both were completely done. As Ned came back and continued to pick and help peel you both sat there in silence for a while.  
  
"So... Max huh?" You nodded at that, taking a small breath.  
  
"Yep." You responded with a slight shake of your head.  
  
"Never met the guy myself but sounded nice... sounds like he got himself a slight case of the Superpowers, huh?" You winced at that but slowly nodded; Ned wasn't trying to be insensitive about this. Heck, you barely knew Max better than he did and... well, while you did feel bad about it you couldn't feel outright destroyed or awful like Ben. With Ned it was even more distant so his natural lean towards jokes in situations like these shouldn't have been a surprise. "Got anything on your mind about that?" The invitation to just vent a bit was clearly opened as you braced your forehead against your hand.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You awkwardly glanced about as you tried your best to make sure no one was paying too much attention to you before turning your gaze back down to the section in front of you. A local hardware store had, naturally, been your pick for some gloves and boots that you could use as a stop gap in your fight against Max that, regardless of how you felt about it, you were pretty sure was coming. You didn't have time to find a way to insulate your suit, didn't have time to develop a new style of Webbing and you really didn't have time to do both or, Heck, even either. So you needed to be able to get something real quick that would let you get up and go and move on for the sting. As you parsed through your options here you frowned as you flipped some over in order to look at them.  
  
You had a couple options in your head; first off were the gloves you had back at home with your chemistry set. They were extremely thin and replacement ones out of a whole box of them but, still, they were technically rubber gloves, you supposed (or close enough for your purposes). Still given how thin they were you couldn't even guess how long they'd last under Max's withering blast. One hit, two? It was hard to say. If you only wanted these gloves to take the one hit and keep trucking then, well, that should be fine.  
  
In front of you, however, were more meaty work gloves. Latex insulated, especially around the palms. Meant to work with electrical circuitry to keep you from getting shocked. They were nice, thick and sturdy... but not exactly perfect for what you were looking for. They were still commercial and even these didn't stack up to the material and design of the helmet Doctor Connors had designed for Max. Still _that kind of thing_ would probably run you far higher than the handful of fives you had on hand to purchase this stuff so you were all too willing to settle.  
  
As far as rubber boots go it was even more simple; just one option. A pair of nice, shin-high rubber boots. They looked like galoshes but you could see from the design of their tread that these things weren't meant to just keep your feet dry; they were to keep your feet from getting shocked. Same as the gloves though there was no telling how many hits these would take before the heat of Electro's attack would just melt straight through them. Still, it'd definitely help in making sure you didn't take blows for a while, at any rate.  
  
You checked your wallet again and huffed, looking over the other two. Time to make up your mind you supposed.

You carefully glanced around as you pulled one of the boots up, making sure nobody was looking at you before you slowly slipped one of your shoes off. All of this would be pretty pointless to test out of you ended up finding out that, hey, it turns out your Wall Crawling didn't work through these boots so you wasted your money on nothing... or were just going to have to plan around not having your feet free to stick on stuff. You quickly pulled the boot on up over your foot, still glancing about awkwardly as you make sure it was good and secure. You then pressed your foot up against a nearby wall and... well, did whatever it was you did to make your Wall Crawling powers work. Kind of a flex but not really? It was hard to put into words.  
  
You started to try to force yourself away from the wall while still keeping the Wall Crawling powers active. To your relief you were indeed sticking to the wall, unable to budge your foot yourself unless you deactivated the flesh of your powers in order to get it to stop working. Admittedly it was... wonky. If you didn't put your all into keeping the powers up then it was simpler for you to slide your foot slightly which didn't usually happen in your normal costume. It seemed like your body had a limit and stuff like this was scratching up against the limit of it... sturdier material or thicker material would probably stop you from being able to stick to surfaces.  
  
Good to know, even if it meant heavily armoring yourself was probably a no go in that case. Still, you'd work with-  
  
"Uh... can I ask what you're doing, sir?" You flinched, immediately looking back behind you. An older gentlemen with a fading hairline crossed his burly, hairy arms across his chest as he looked at you, an eyebrow arched as he warily eyes your foot in the boot. You chuckled, nervously, giving him a small smile as you set your foot back on the ground.  
  
"Oh you know just... just taking it for a ride?" You wanted to slap yourself; that sounded so dumb but it was literally the first thing you could think of. The man just huffed a bit as he looked you up and down.  
  
"Hope you enjoyed it, sir."  
  
...  
  
"I fully intend to pay for these."  
  
"You're damn right you do, putting your foot in there. Come on to the register."  
  
Well, hey, you intended to buy them anyway. So you weren't technically in much trouble... still, this was probably a good reason to maybe pick another store for the time being if you needed stuff like this again. Just until they didn't think you had tried to rob them.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You glanced over at the shopping bags you'd brought with you; the gloves and boots you'd bought sitting there while you let your thoughts roam over your head. Preparing for the next round with Max, preparing for the next stage of the fight... well, that had been distracting, at least a little bit. It'd kept you from thinking too hard about Max and the situation he'd found himself in and the situation you yourself were in with this. You really didn't want to have to fight Max but, well, Max was clearly a danger to the entire city... and became more and more of a threat the longer time went on. The Polar Vortex wasn't going to end anytime soon. People were straight up suggesting 'weeks' of weather like this, if not longer. Max couldn't be allowed to keep this up, couldn't be allowed to continue shorting the power in New York...  
  
You just...  
  
You just wish you didn't know the guy well enough to still refer to him in your head by his first name.  
  
"I think if I have to fight one more person I know as Spider-Man, I'm going to scream." You said as you rubbed your face, fingers reaching up for your temples as Ned nodded behind you.  
  
"Yeah, for real. First Hobbie and now Max? You'd be straight up cursed if this ended up going three for three, if you ask me." Ned commented idly as you frowned; he had a point. If this happened again you really would have to consider the possibility that you were just straight up cursed with this kind of horrendously bad luck... which, yeah, really didn't appeal.  
  
"You're telling me..." You agreed as you ran your hands through your hair. "It's not just that, it's... I mean, look. On the one hand he's just lucky to be alive, man. Even compared to me; I might've gotten sick and, even if I don't know what Oscorp was working on, I can reasonably assume the Spider was probably meant to do something like it did to me, right? Like, Oscorp probably was looking for it to do... you know, something like this to somebody." You flexed your hands a bit, the raw strength hidden under your frame not even showing as you waved a hand out randomly. "Then there's Max. Max got his powers from a _generator run on genetically-altered electric eels and rays._ There's no way it was meant to do something like that but, lo and behold, whatever was in that tank and the power being generated ended up... well, making him some kind of electric Supervillain!"  
  
"I still really can't get over that. Dude takes a bath in some electrified gunk and he ends up getting Static Shock powers from it? What were they even experimenting with?" You shook your head along with Ned, shrugging your shoulders as you blew out through your lips.  
  
"It's nuts. It's absolutely nuts and it's no wonder he's confused and angry... it's no wonder but, well, I can't let that go on. I can't just let this situation keep going. People's lives are at stake. So I just have to hope I can stop him before he hurts anyone else. Then, I dunno, maybe afterward he can get the help he needs... or, at the very least that Doctor Connors and Doctor Warren will be able to fix him with whatever they're working on."  
  
Which was a whole other leg to this... and the reason why you were so sure of staking out the lab. If there was one place Max was going to be, the one place he'd hit... it'd be there. It was his only hope. He needed the lab to work on a cure...  
  
And judging by how angry he was, you weren't exactly positive about the idea that he was going to sit back and wait patiently for the doctors to finish their work. You'd need to be there when he'd, almost inevitably, come knocking.  
  
"Yeah, hopefully. From the way you described all it sounds like the dude is beyond miserable right now." You nodded in agreement at that as Ned, finally, finished peeling the last of the dead or scarred skin off of you. "So, I can tell you got some kind of plan worked together, considering what you bought."  
  
"I do have some kind of plan put together, yeah." Admittedly you were still working out the details but a plan was coming together. You'd just need to be there in order to see it through. As you slipped your t-shirt back on Ned just shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Think whatever you've got cooking up'll work?" He doesn't sound worried, at least not insanely worried. Your best friend knew what you were capable of now and seen you take down a Supervillain before... but the question was probably warranted. Max wasn't like Vulture, he wasn't just some guy in a fancy suit. Max was all together more dangerous.  
  
It'd be pretty nuts if Ned didn't end up asking you something like this.

You finished getting dressed back up as you picked up your bags. You sighed, heading toward the door to Ned's room as you made to leave. "I hope so, last time I severely underestimated him and I still managed to get a couple of hits in."  
  
"So you think you can get him with a little more prep." Ned said with a nod as you rubbed for forehead.  
  
"I hope so. Really I would even prefer it if it didn't have to come to that. Part of me still hopes I can reason with him. Even if he won't be inclined to listen to me." You opened the door and stepped through as Ned just gave you one last not.  
  
"Well Pete... good luck man."  
  
"Thanks Ned, I'll need it."

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You took a deep breath as you finished slipping on the gloves, testing them out but balling up your fists and relaxing them before slipping your Web Shooters back on. You couldn't exactly slip them under the rubber gloves; the latter weren't designed with the former in mind so there wasn't holes or slots ready made for the Webbing to fire out of. You were going to have to show them off... and do so for the first time ever, you realized. It was kind of strange and to a certain sense uncomfortable; the air of mystery of how you did what you did was something you liked about being Spider-Man. Now here you were essentially letting the kids peek behind the curtain and see how the magic trick was done.  
  
Necessary sacrifice though; you needed these gloves and you needed your Web Shooters. Above the gloves was the only way this was going to work.  
  
You heaved a sigh after finishing this process as you looked down through the glass ceiling of the Connors Lab, seeing all the various people at play busy at work. The Connors themselves were busy at work at a computer, probably trying to organize some data, while that Brock guy and Doctor Warren were looking over some samples. Judging by the color it was some of the gunk from the tank. You really did hope that they were doing everything in their power to get this cure done; the clock was ticking after all.  
  
You sighed as you leaned back from your spot and rubbed at your arms; even with the thermals the sub-zero temperatures of the Polar Vortex were just hard to deal with. Spending hours out here at a time freezing your but off wasn't exactly what you had imagined doing when you'd become a Superhero but, hey, it was necessary. Really you would've liked to be here out during the day too just in case Max swung by but, well, you were fine leaving it to the police during the daytime... and... well.  
  
It was easier for you to hide out here and be unseen at night. There wouldn't be much benefit to you looking over the lab if they noticed you, panicked and called the police... or if the police noticed you and started chasing you. No, taking your shift late at night and watching over them, shadows keeping you from being easily spotted, was just going to have to do. You shivered again as you glanced out over the cities, seeing a few lights flicker on and off as the brownouts continued. Max was still definitely out there alright... but, well, who knew when he'd actually show up. You hoped, relatively, soon before you froze your butt off.  
  
...  
  
As you got into your second hour of waiting for Max to show you shook off some of the snow that had built up on you. You heaved a sigh as you dusted off the top of your mask, looking out to the city again. The brownout was still going on. Lights dimming and brightening... and dimming and brightening. Pretty quickly, actually, now that you got a good look at it. In fact... it was starting to get faster and faster. Traffic nearby was starting to grind to a halt too as the nearby intersection started to finally freak out. Almost as if the circuitry was being...  
  
Overloaded.  
  
You narrowed your eyes behind your mask, very slowly moving your position across the roof as you kept an eye out. Trying to spot out whether or not...  
  
He was here. Walking across the nearby crosswalk in that suit of his, though now without the clothing you'd seen him in the first night. He was hunched forward, marching with a purpose toward the lab and the power around him, and even within the lab itself, was fluctuating wildly as he crossed into ESU's Campus.  
  
Alright Spidey... if you had a plan now was the time to start putting it into place.

Well... time to put your money where your mouth was, you supposed. You heaved a long, drawn out sigh as you stood up and, firing off a Webline, swung forward. You went as slow as you reasonably could and landed on the ground a good couple feet from him, causing him to flinch in surprise before you stood up to face him. That surprise ebbed quickly as, immediately, his eyes narrowed behind his mask again.  
  
 **"You!"**  
  
"Yeah, me." You raised both of your hands defensively to try and keep him from freaking out. "Listen, I know you don't have a reason to trust me, I was hasty before and assumed a lot because the situation looked bad but I want to talk."  
  
 **"Talk!?"** Max responded, the glow under his mask revving up as he looked at you. **"After everything that's happened you want me to sit here and talk?! Get out of my way!"** Your Spider-Sense went off as Max waved his hand, a handful of electric bolts flying your way as you jumped and hopped out of the way of each one.  
  
"Listen to me! I get it; when I was mutated I was scared and confused and, man, I didn't even have it anywhere near as bad as you! I know you have to be terrified right now but you have to see that you're seriously hurting people! It's not on purpose sure but having people's power shut off in the middle of this storm is going to lead to people dying! You need to turn yourself in-"  
  
 **"I NEED TO TURN MYSELF IN!?"**  
  
"WOAH!" You jumped out of the way of the last blast, aggressive and powerful as he roared.  
  
 **"CONNORS AND WARREN ARE IN THERE! THEY MADE ME THIS WAY, THEY DID THIS TO ME! IF ANYONE SHOULD BE ROTTING IN SOME CELL OR SITTING IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM IT'S THEM! I'M GOING TO _MAKE THEM CURE ME!"_** Okay so he was still _very angry._ You fired off two Weblines, one of which managed to tag his chest before you quickly swung him around to move him; if he was this intent on getting close to the lab then you had to play keep away. With your plan in motion you swung him over towards a series of trees, essentially throwing him just underneath one as you took a breath.  
  
"Look they're probably working on it as we speak! Stuff like this takes time though! If you hurt them or worse then you're never going to get cured and you can't possibly want that! You have to give them more time!"  
  
 **"I don't... HAVE TIME!"** With that Max grabbed onto the Webline you had used to toss him, charging it with a great deal of electrical energy in an attempt to shock you once again. The Webline, naturally, went up in flames almost instantly but when it reached your Web Shooter it just... stopped there. Sure electrical sparks surged across it for a bit and the rubber glove got a little hot underneath it but, otherwise, you were fine. In the end you just sighed as you looked at Max, narrowing your gaze behind your mask.  
  
"Well... I'd say that I'd have to take the kid gloves off now, then but... you know." You waved your hands at Max which only caused him to growl more in frustration as you, suddenly, fired two Weblines. Your hands were pointed up at the time, sending the two strands of Webbing up into the tree branches above Max's head. The blizzard that now accompanied the Polar Vortex had put loads and loads of snow into the trees and, well, it would've been positively unreal for you to not take advantage of that. With a mighty shake you pulled and jostled on the Weblines and ended up sending the branches and top of the tree shaking and shivering. As you did so the snow that had built up constantly over the past several days worth of blizzard ended up being shook free, piling on top of Max and burying him up to his chest.  
  
 **"Don't play stupid games with me!"** Max declared with a yell as the telltale glow of his hands suddenly made themselves known through the snow... and then the inevitable happened. Max gave out a loud, painful yell as lightning sparked wildly everywhere, the snow around him largely melting very quickly under the light show as he went ramrod stiff. Okay, theory tested and proved; if you piled up enough snow on him then the melting water would be enough to short him out. Presumably more snow, or better yet more water, meant more backlash from his own powers. Good to know. You moved into position to try and get a better hit in on Max when you'd have the chance while the electric man stood up, slowly but surely.  
  
Instead of his eyes meeting your own, however, his eyes cast off to the side, presumably being distracted by some movement...  
  
...  
  
 **"CONNORS! WARREN!"**  
  
Oh no way.  
  
You looked off to the side, for a moment very much worried... but found some relief. The doctors were quite far away at this point, likely having taken another way out of the lab in order to get as much distance between themselves and the battle as possible. They looked back at the shout but then immediately kept running along with the rest of their staff. Well, that was a relief at least; with them being so far out of the way there was no way-  
  
 **"GET BACK HERE!"**  
  
"Hey no!" Too late as Max brought both of his hands together and with one, mighty throw sent single, focused bolt of lightning out in that general direction... thankfully though it only hit a car, having veered off course from the staff in question...  
  
Unfortunately you think it was Doctor Connors' car. A car that, upon being hit with the bolt pretty much immediately blew up on impact. _Woof._  
  
You watched the look in Max's eyes deflate more a moment, a look of anguish on his face as he watched the entire lab run off away from the fight. Still that anguish wasn't there long and was soon replaced by a look of rage, of fury, as he turned back to glare at you.  
  
 **"LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID! THEY'RE RUNNING AWAY FROM ME, FROM FIXING ME! THEY WERE MY ONLY CHANCE AT A CURE!"**  
  
"They're trying, dude! This whole reckless disregard for their lives thing is a good skill for politicians but you're only hurting yourself by doing this! You have to give them time to figure it out!"  
  
 **"You don't get it! None of you get it! I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't drink anything! I can't even feel anything but this buzzing in my skin... I'm not even human anymore!"** The energy pouring off of Max's hands built and built as his emotional state deteriorating, a madness seeping into his eyes as he looked at you with so much hate. **"Without a cure I'M NOT MAX DILLON ANYMORE! I'm... huh..."** He paused, as if struck by something. [**"... What did you call me?"**](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/post-64697027)  
  
"Uh... [Sparky?](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/post-64606091)"  
  
 **"NO! Not that... electro. _Yeaaaah..."_**  
  
In one, fluid motion the helmet unfolded, separating into pieces before sliding back into his suit. You honestly had to shield your eyes for a moment before they could adjust to the light as Max went off, all too familiar lightning bolts now flying free from his head.  
  
[ ** _"I'M ELECTRO!"_**](https://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/electro5.jpg)  
  
You ducked out of the way of one particular blast and grimaced, letting go of one of the Weblines as you firmed up your grip on the other.  
  
"Alright then, Electro..." You started charging after him while giving a mighty pull on the line which snapped off one of the branches you'd tagged earlier and fished it back into your hand. "Batter up!" You loudly declared as you took a wide swing at Electro, the electric Supervillain ducking out of the way of it before he waved his hands yet again. Once more you ducked and dodged out of the way of the bolt, some in the nick of times, before you narrowed your gaze and focused in on him. You took one swing, it was too wide... but the next two were dead on. The branch snapped into his ribs on one side which caused him to choke a bit, losing his breath. The other smashed into his other shoulder which, for the moment, seemed to cause him a good deal of pain...  
  
That is up until the branch essentially disintegrated into burnt up ash and charcoal from the continued exposure to all of Electro's power.  
  
"... Woops." You commented, idly, as you dropped the chunk of wood leftover in your hand. Still, it did its job; you'd managed to score a good few hits on him... now if only he didn't look quite so angry.  
  
 **"GET AWAY FROM ME!"** Electro threw out both hands in a gesture that was all too familiar to you now as his body basically turned into one giant bug-zapper. A storm of bolts flashed out your way and... man, it just didn't go well. While you dodged the first handful just find when one hit you a whole bunch of them ended up turning in on you at once. From four different directions you felt electrical currents running through your body, forcing your muscles to go wild while you could swear you couldn't breath. Skin burnt under your costume and hair singed... but, thankfully, the rubber boots and gloves were acting as grounding elements. It wasn't as bad as it could've been... but holy crap was it still bad.  
  
You dropped back to the ground, still on your feet, but feeling dizzy and disoriented. Okay; staying up close to Electro like this just wasn't the plan, not so long as he could turn himself into a live wire like that. You had to get him away from you... and away from here. More and more snow was melting around here and Electro's little stunts had ended up not only destroying and damaging a whole bunch of cars and light posts, it also set most of the trees around you both on fire. You glanced around, desperately, trying to find another place to fight this out with Electro...  
  
Just behind the tree you'd thrown him under, out of Electro's direct vision, a small grove of trees that had avoided the brunt of his electricity were there. You narrowed your eyes and nodded to yourself; that was about your only chance.  
  
"Alright then Electro... wish granted!" You fired off another Webline and tagged his chest again and spun, immediately, before he could react. His feet were off the ground and he was screaming by the time you got in a good few spins and then let go. You sent him sailing through the air, sparks flying, before he impacted against the trunk of one of the trees, shaking it ever so slightly and causing a little bit of snow to drop... but not all of it and not all at once.  
  
 **"You pest... I'm going to take care of you ONCE AND FOR ALL!"** Electro roared out, furious, as he tried to blast you again. With more distance, and having to not worry about the field around him, you managed to duck and dip around to avoid any of his attacks... and to position yourself close enough to have the trees in range of your Web Shooters.  
  
"You know, I'm sure I've heard that before. Were you at the Macy's Parade? I swear, you look so familiar and I know I've heard someone say that to me before." You fired off two Weblines and tagged two different trees. This would be a bit harder, considering you were spreading out your strength... but it really was your only option at this point.  
  
"Oh wait, my mistake, _that was Pikachu."_  
  
With a solid pull and a jostle you successfully managed to send both trees shaking which, in turn, sent the piles and piles of blizzard-provided snow down on top of Electro, completely burying him as he cried out in surprise. With his head open to the air... well, what came next wasn't a surprise.  
  
Still you had to turn your gaze away from the light show that ended up coming about because of it. When you turned your gaze back the pile of snow was gone, reduced to nothing more than a few inches of water that had gathered in the area around Electro. Electro himself looked... well...  
  
"Dammit... what did you do..." Electro groaned out as he forced himself to his feet. He was still sparking, of course, his skin still the color of that yellow lightning. However now his head's shape was far more distinct and easy to see... his power had been drained. Heck, he wasn't even producing outright bolts of energy just by standing around like before.  
  
Which meant that this was your chance.  
  
"If I had to guess? I think I shorted you out, Electro." With that you charged forward. Your first swing didn't connect, Electro ducking back away from you as he grunted from the exertion. He threw his hands out again but the electric field that had blasted you away last time didn't manifest. Instead he tried to blast you again but it was clear that it was just keeping him from recharging at this point. With that opening given you got to work. You'd never hit someone as hard as you possibly could up until this moment. Heck, you knew better than to do so; it could easily kill someone or seriously maim them, after all, if you hit them with everything you had.  
  
By now, though, you very well understood Electro could take it. One punch sent him reeling, covering his gut from the sudden blow that drove the air out of his lungs. Another, then, slammed into his side, sending him skittering back. By now your rubber gloves were outright peeling off of you, having taken about all the punishment they could, and now shocks of electricity ran up your arms upon each contact with Electro. Still it was too weak to matter... and you needed this over now before he could get back up. Another punch and he groaned, his legs trembling from the hit as he stumbled about.  
  
You slammed your fist into his chest again and just as you were about to bring both hands around for another... you saw him stumble forward. You took a step back, pausing for the moment, before suddenly Electro collapsed onto the ground, splashing the water around him as faint shocks clicked in the pool. His helmet triggered, folding up out of the confines of his suit to cover his head as soon as he fell unconscious...  
  
...  
  
You sighed in relief, lowering your fists as you took deep, exhausted breaths. Another shock that ran up your leg got you to jump out of the water and look down at your boots... or rather the melted remains of your boots.  
  
Jeez...  
  
Still, as you looked down at Electro's unconscious form you couldn't help but think that it had been twenty-five dollars well spent at the very least. That thought along finally got you to relax as you placed your hands on your knees, body wracked with some pain as you took deep breaths to recover a bit. You looked around; trees were on fire, cars had been exploded and, by now, the Connors, Warren and their staff had probably called about all of this. No doubt the police were on their way as well as the Fire Department... probably time to get moving.

"Alright then... let's get this over with." You said with a sigh as you placed your Web Shooters back under your costume; with the rubber gloves essentially burnt and melted off there wasn't much point to keeping the metal exposed to the open air anymore, after all. With a flick of your wrists you quickly started firing off several Weblines. You started building a huge glob of Webbing around Electro, covering him in more than enough that he should, hopefully, be contained in it and not want to combust it. After a certain point he'd just be setting himself on fire, after all. Still, man, it was really Webbing consuming and long to get this done with just strands of Webbing. Still, it's what you had at the moment so you'd just have to make due.  
  
After a while Electro's hands were basically entirely consumed by Webbing and, after a quick turn of your reloading mechanism you got to work securing the rest of him too before creating a single line to hang him up by his back on a tree branch. You clapped your hands together, dusting them off for a job well done as you put your hands on your hips. "There we go. Super villain defeated, day saved, no one hurt. I'd say I pulled off a hat trick here, if I do say so myself."  
  
Your proud declaration was cut off when, all of a sudden, the sound of splintering wood and a loud, crashing collapse echoed behind you. You turned to see that the tree you had initially fought Electro under had, by this point, burnt straight through and ended up falling onto the ground... the rest of the trees didn't look much better.  
  
At least the snow was putting out the burning car fires, right? You think?  
  
...  
  
"Okay so maybe hat trick is a bit too strong of a description." You sheepishly scratched the back of your neck, wincing as you felt your muscles strain; the combination of cold, swinging, fighting and electricity had taken their toll... again. "I'm gonna go home and take a hot shower... I've earned it." You said with a slight sigh as you fired off a Webline to prepare to swing away. Just as you were about to make the jump you looked back at the hanging Supervillain, a frown forming underneath your mask.  
  
"... I really hope you get the help you need Max. I really don't want to see you out here again..." With that you leaped, firing another Webline as you did so in order to get good distance and start making for home. You'd accomplished a lot tonight and you were glad for it... but man, you just really hoped that this would be the end of stuff like this. Prowler, Electro.  
  
Maybe your next bad guy could be someone you didn't know. You honestly thought you'd prefer that.  
  


... 2/6

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


A fuzzy video feed. In 2019 this shouldn't have been a problem; cameras were set up in a lot of places in New York. The stop lights had cameras, businesses had cameras, Hell, every single person in the entire city, save for the poor or those so horrendously backwards, had a camera built into their phone these days. A good portion of them tended to like taking videos of just about anything you could hope to see too; from what they had to breakfast to something important that was going down. That was the great thing about this modern Age of Social Media that he found appealing. While other folks his age might complain about the kids and their damn phones, The Big Man couldn't tell you how much he appreciated how open the people of New York were with their lives these days.  
  
Back in his day pulling secrets and facts out of people was like pulling teeth and video proof to back it up was much rarer. Now a days people posted everything on Social Media... even the stuff the idiots really shouldn't have. He couldn't tell you the number of jurors he'd managed to swing because he caught them in a lie about what they knew about the case going in that they didn't share with their prosecutors... but they did post all over their Twitter or their Facebook. There was so much information out there open to being taken advantage of, all at the press of a button, to those willing to adapt. The Big Man didn't get to where he was by being unwilling to adapt, either. Old School Style and Substance mixed with New Tech. That's how he'd taken over the crime scene in the city in the first place, after all.  
  
Good memories. A shame about the carpets.  
  
Yet here he was in this glorious information age looking at a video feed that looked more fit for some hot dog joint's security feed from the 1990s. The picture jittered and skipped and had an ever present level of static over it. Still, he looked at it and studied it as carefully as he could because, considering the circumstances, it was the best they could do. That screaming electric freak basically kicked the tech of anything observing him back by decades with how much power he was constantly pushing out of him and into the open air, judging by what his tech guys said. At least, that was the 'simple' way that the Tinkerer had explained it. So this really was going to be the best he could get...  
  
It was good enough, however.  
  
Good enough to see exactly what they needed to see; the Spider-Kid fighting the freak. Took his lumps, sure, but he beat him down. Hard too, by the looks of the police reports; bruises all over this guy. No breaks, though. Still, the fact it took a walking bug zapper to put some hard hits on this kid, something only repeated previously by that lunatic Toomes...  
  
"Looks like Hobie wasn't exaggerating. We've got a mutie on our hands." The Big Man declared as he turned off the feed, Hammerhead nodding slowly as he finished picking at his teeth with a toothpick.  
  
"Gotta admit, I was a little skeptical. Ain't seen a mutie kick up a fuss like this in a long time. Still, Hobie was tellin' the truth; he felt the kid weren't right and he was right."  
  
"Indeed. Start working on getting Hobie released. It'll take some time and I'll say, after this, no point in keeping him in the dog house for too much longer." The Big Man declared, rubbing his knuckles a bit as a familiar old ache rocked through them. Hammerhead bowed his head at that before looking back down at the screen that had shown the security feed of the fight.  
  
"Think the Spider's one of the lunatic's kids?"  
  
"The Kraut? Doesn't feel like his style. If this was one of his we'd probably see a lot more property damage." The Big Man folded his fingers together. "No, no. Seems like we've got ourselves a rogue little freak deciding that he can upend the apple cart just cause he got born with some power. In a way he's a bigger pain in the ass than Castle; at least Castle was a man. He bleeds, he falls, he can die. We put him in a coma; only mistake wasn't finishing the job." The Big Man reached for a small bowl at one corner of his desk, pulling over the police report they'd received a copy of. "Spider-boy here bleeds, sure, but he's so abnormally above human that it's not just fear that makes people think he's something bigger than he is. Kid is bigger than them. A true blue 'Super'hero." The Big Man rolled his eyes; the police were already scrambling to explain the new information that Spider-Man's brawls with the lightning bolt told them about his capabilities.  
  
"Sounds like we got ourselves an awfully big pest on our hand. We'll need a specialist." Hammerhead suggested as the Big Man leaned back in his seat.  
  
"Indeed... the fights here and with Toomes shows that our boys just aren't going to cut it unless we throw sheer numbers at him and blow him away. Can't afford to do something that brazen. No... to kill a freak we're going to need a freak. Hammerhead, make the call again. Apologize for having canceled the Castle Contract...  
  
"And inform him we have a new job for him."


	47. Outtake 8: Call Received

It was a small town, forty miles south of the border in the State of Coahuila. You didn't need to be sharp to know that there was a lot of business passing through the small town that really shouldn't have been. Bullets, guns, vehicles armored to the tits, drugs, people. All the while people just trying to make a passable living separated from all of this just continued on with their lives, keeping their heads down and just hoping they could stay out of trouble. A lot of this meant not asking questions and just being willing to shut up and go about your business no matter who stopped by; whether that be the government or otherwise.

It's what lead to, what was unknown to most people at the time, a small stand off at the intersection of a couple streets. On one side was an open air cafe; unless you lived on some peak like Iztaccihuantl or on a highland like Toluca it didn't tend to snow or get too cold in Mexico during the winter. It's what made the southern part of the country especially an attractive tourist destination to Americans with too much time, money or both on their hands. Sat at a table at the cafe was a small meeting; men doing the business of the day.

No one bothered to ask what it was and only spoke long enough to gather their orders before moving on. They were speaking in hushed tones as they discussed a plot on their very lives. It had become all too clear that someone was carving their way up the ladder of their organization, picking their way through criminals and small time members of the organization, in order to advance up and up. By now it was also as plain as day to see that the three men were the target, based on who was getting picked out in particular. If they didn't do something soon they'd join their subordinates in shallow graves.

What they didn't realize, what they couldn't realize, was that even as they spoke about this threat that it was upon them. That the second they sat down a stand off had kicked off between them and the man hired on to take them down. Across the intersection and in a small restaurant, closed for lunch according to the sign hanging on its door, was the threat. A remorseless killer, a dangerous weapon. One of the world's most feared and deadly mercenaries currently running.

[ _"Heeeey yeah~, I wanna shoop, baby!"_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vaN01VLYSQ)

A pleased sigh escaped a pair of partially parted lips as a heavily scared jaw worked itself against a particular thick chunk of steak. A red and black mask had been pulled up over the neck and jaw of the merc, the eyes of the mask closed as part of the mirthful gesture. The man, well over six feet tall, leaned back in his chair, a brown trench coat covering a good portion of his leather ensemble, the same colored theme as his costume. Placed on the table in front of him were a pair of dual katana, set ever so slightly off-center within their sheaths and leather straps.

"Man oh man. Tell you what, I keep coming down here and I keep being surprised by how much _better_ actual Mexican is than the stuff you can get up in the States. Compliments to the chef, my good man!" The mercenary pointed over to the chef with his fork before digging more into the skillet steak that had been prepared for him. The chef, presumably the man who owned the restaurant, looked to be on the verge of tears as he nodded his head eagerly; he couldn't understand the stranger but he could be hopeful over his tone. The man continued to eat for a moment before glancing off to the side, the white eyes of his mask blinking.

"Well, about time somebody finally got to me!" The merc spoke up, wiping at his mouth with his hand, covered in grease and leftover food already from the merc's unbelievably poor table manners, which only exposed more of his scarred face. "Sorry for the mess, _ladies_ , I wasn't actually expecting company this early. You never know how those rolls are gonna end up right?" The man swung a hand around and poked his fork into his chest. "Allow me to introduce myself so the hack writing this can actually use a Goddamn proper noun. Deadpool, Merc With a Mouth, three time Death Battle participant, and equal parts beloved and reviled internet meme." Deadpool declared with a wink before using his fork to point at the terrified chef. "That over there is Mr. Rodriguez. Nice guy, great cook, doesn't speak a word of English though. While I can speak Spanish it just wouldn't be as fun to terrorize him in his own language. I'm sure you understand.

"This situation here?" Deadpool continued, as if talking to someone from thin air in a move that greatly perturbed Mr. Rodriguez. "Look, it's not that I hit this guy up for free food by pointing a gun to his head. Please, I'm above that kind of thing. It's probably hard to tell what exactly's happened here without the full context so... let's see if I can... force this..."

Off to the side Deadpool's free hand, unoccupied with his meal, held and had at the ready one of his signature pistols. The gun's muzzle was modified with a silencer to keep things quiet as part of his sting and was pointed directly at the head of a woman, tied up to a chair facing opposite Deadpool. The woman in question had her hands and legs tied to various bits and ends of the chair she was in, her mouth gagged with a dirty dish cloth as she cried out in pain and panic. A graze against her shoulder bled lightly as she looked over at Mr. Rodriguez, the man's terrified gaze looking back over at her as both of them came to realize that they were sharing the room with a lunatic.

"No, I didn't shoot his wife to get him to make me free food either. I just shot his wife so the two of them would let me hide out in here while I waited for some jackals to show up across the street. They got this sneaky out-in-the-open meeting planned and I've been so eager to actually get them! I tell you what, Mexico's great but like all vacations well, you know, familiarity breeds contempt. I think the police might be getting a little sick of me. The free food is just, you know, a benefit...

"Hey! I see the way you're looking at the screen! Don't you judge me! You know how much a churro cost down here? Like, 50 bucks! I'm not paying 50 bucks for **one churro.** Rest of the meal would've been even crazier! Like sure the food down here's better than Taco Bell but I'm not paying for a month's worth of dinner for one super juicy steak. If these people don't want honest, hard working Canadians like myself busting down their doors and threatening them with overwhelming violence then they need to drop their prices. That's the actual robbery going on here and, I'll tell you, it's just so uncivilized." Deadpool said as he forked more steak into his mouth, chewing loudly and obnoxiously as he did so.

"Plus at least I'm stealing food, something I need to live. How many of you neckbeards in the audience here have emulated stuff or downloaded some music on... Fuck, I dunno. What do people use to download music illegally these days? Limewire isn't around anymore thanks to all the CP that people kept 'accidentally' downloading off of it." Deadpool gave a short finger quote with both hands which, for a moment, caused Mr. Rodriguez to step forward as he saw an opportunity to disarm the psychopath.

Deadpool on the other hand, just quickly flicked his wrist and shot his wife's other shoulder, a silent *fwip* leaving the barrel as the bullet grazed her. She cried out again in pain as Mr. Rodriguez stumbled back, hands in the air once more as Deadpool just shook his head. "While I'm getting my sustenance at the cost of a couple of amoral highway robbers trying to gouge me for a basic need you all are bullying poor, defenseless, multi-billion dollar corporations by downloading some data. I see you shaking your head; enjoy being on the wrong side of history."

...

Deadpool burst out into a fit of laughter, giving a short hoot at the end of it as he winked at the open air. "God you guys are gonna love New York as a setting come later this year. Anyway, enough bullshit; you all are probably here to see me kill those guys at the other side of the intersection huh? Big old action scene to help roll on from the exciting fight with Sparks McGillicuddy. I'm in the mood for some good old fashioned, family friendly, horrifying graphic and up-close violence myself. So let's-"

[ ***RI-RI-RI-RING! RING-RING-RING-RI-RI-RING!*** ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHzz-gV4Q-c)

"-oops! Hold on, gamer time." Deadpool reached into his belt and pulled out a smartphone to look at the caller ID. "Ugh, Hammerhead. Any of you guys figure out who the Big Man is yet? Kind of a pain in the ass to be kept guessing huh? Well, I know you didn't ask me but personally I think that it's Hammerhead and the Big Man is his Tyler Durden... but hey. That's [~just a theory~."](https://www.famousbirthdays.com/headshots/matthew-patrick-2.jpg) Deadpool quickly accepted the call and brought the phone up to his ear. "Hammerhead! Pal, big old head boi... why are you calling me right now?" Deadpool leaned back in his seat, pistol still pointed at the woman as he shook his head. "Don't tell me you're coming to pull the Frank Castle bullshit again, I'm on another job."

_"I'm sure you are."_ Deadpool rolled his eyes; the merc with a mouth always thought-

"Hey hey hey. None of that narrating my thoughts for me. I can handle it myself." Deadpool swung his hand through the air as he rolled his eyes. "Sure do love how you go ahead and just don't react to anything I say Hammerhead. Really, it takes the whole straight man routine to a whole new, unfun level."

_"Hmm. Can't say I'm unhappy to hear that. At any rate, drop whatever gig you're doing right now and take the next flight to New York pronto. The Big Man'll reimburse you and your employer for your time and money."_

"Jeez Hammerhead, you can't just keep buying me from other crime bosses like this! It's unfair to the poor, workaday criminals to have someone stomp on in and take their clients."

_"Is that a no?"_

"I want double what I was going to get originally."

_"Fine."_ Deadpool pumped his fist into the air before returning to the phone.

"That was quick. Castle keep up his usual routine up there since you last canceled on me? Usually I'd have to cajole you guys pretty hard to get you to agree to that kind of a pay raise."

_"It's not Castle this time. We got ourselves a pest swinging around and causing some problems for our boys. We want you to deal with him. Details'll be made available to you when you arrive."_ With that the line went dead and Deadpool jumped up in his seat, eyes wide with excitement.

"Oh holy shit no way! Finally calling me in for Spidey! About Goddamn time, too! I've been waiting for this moment for years! I mean, Hell, I knew it was going to take a long time for me to get my man crush thing going but man I am _so ready!"_ Deadpool looked into the open air, his brow furrowing as his excitement was replaced by curiosity. "What are you giving me that look for?" ... "Not legal? What the Hell are you talking about? I mean, fuck, I knew it was slow to update but, come on, dude pulled out a time skip of a few months within the first hundred or so updates! Spidey should totally be legal by now!"

...

"What do you mean what do I mean? You know, the time skip. All the tech he was getting? The money? The video game he was making?!"

...

"... What Quest is this?"

...

"FUCK! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Mr. Rodriguez and the woman both stumbled back, frightened by the sudden turn in Deadpool's temper as he beat a hand against his head. "Cockblocked by a [Dead Quest](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ultimate-spider-quest.519805/) and a [Shitty-Ass Reboot!"](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/) Deadpool just shook his head, clucking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Well there goes my good mood... and my erection. Unless..." Deadpool [thought](https://cdn130.picsart.com/275704650011211.png?type=webp&to=min&r=1024) hard for a moment. "Nah. The gag stops being funny at this point. Still, might as well go over and try to murder a fifteen year old. That should be fun!" Deadpool kept his pistol out as he turned back to Mr. Rodriguez and the woman as both of them stared in sheer terror at Deadpool.

"... Okay so I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess you're both Catholic. Given that, as Catholics I'm sure you both will look at this situation, you know, me holding you up at gunpoint and forcing you to feed me, and you'll look deep within your hearts. Once you do, I'm sure you'll find the truth; that you both probably brought this upon yourselves because you're terrible, terrible sinners... and I forgive you." Deadpool bowed his head at that. "Namaste." With that the Merc With A Mouth made for the exit and, after donning Mr. Rodriguez's hat that he was 'just borrowing' he started to make a break for the nearest airport he could. It'd still probably take some time but, Hell, he was excited to get this business started...

...

"No for real, that's the end of the Outtake. No graphic ultra-violence this time kids. Scram."


	48. Polar Vortex

_"Following the events of last week's brownouts and the arrivals of what weather experts are referring to as the 'Polar Vortex' Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a statement concerning school attendance during the current weather phenomena. While preparing for his State of the City Bill de Blasio confirmed rumors circulating around his staff that school will not be closed in spite of the weather. When pressed for additional comment the mayor departed the scene and continued into City Hall.  
  
"In response to this during the question and answer portion of his press conference at the local Salvation Army, Founder and CEO of Oscorp, Norman Osborn, had this to say about the Mayor's decision:  
  
"'It's a terrible shame that Mayor de Blasio doesn't recognize the hardship and trials that this will put New York families through during this difficult time. When a great number of Manhattan families are still recovering from the brownouts and are trying to ensure their families can make it through this winter, Mayor de Blasio now asks them to choose between their children's education and their health and safety. It won't matter to men like myself; I can very easily get my son to his school in a safe manner. However for less fortunate families the Mayor's decision has foisted upon them a great deal of difficulty.'  
  
"Norman Osborn's press conference, originally dealing with Oscorp's efforts to help charities ensure that families and local shelters are able to heat their homes as the Polar Vortex moves on, was-"_  
  
You winced as you clicked off the stream, leaning back in your seat a bit as you typed out a message for Harry.  
  
"Dang, your dad really dug the knife in deep there. I felt sympathy pains for the Mayor from here."  
  
You'd been doing your best to follow the news after your fight with Electro. While sitting in bed and letting your Healing Factor take care of what additional injuries you'd been inflicted with was your major focus of the day you also wanted to follow up on the aftermath. See what they were saying about Electro, see what people thought and see what was happening in New York in general now that the brownouts had passed. The bottom line was that stuff wasn't great; the Polar Vortex was pretty much expected to last much of, if not the rest of, the winter and, even if it didn't, the toll it was taking on the city and its inhabitants was crushing. Even with round-the-clock work being done by the city's crews to try to keep roads clear it was harsh just due to how cold it was outside. Even bundling up still left you feeling really chilly and, Heck, you had Superpowers!  
  
You might've expected Electro's attack combined with the bad weather would mean you wouldn't have classes next week... but no. No no no. The mayor wasn't having that. You couldn't lie, you'd never seen Uncle Ben actually look like he was about to blow a gasket before but, _woof._ Aunt May wasn't exactly happy with it either. As far as other news about Electro or Spider-Man went things were... well, not exactly quiet but definitely unclear. Electro was apparently being held in captivity awaiting some kind of holding cell that they could be sure would keep him in. During Norman's press conference he'd also stated that Oscorp was doing what it could to help the city with that and rumor had it that Rikers Island was about to play host to him. Not a bad idea given all the water that surrounded it... but only a little awkward due to the longstanding debate about closing the prison.  
  
Still all of that was small potatoes compared to watching Norman Osborn take a knife and jam it in between the Mayor's ribs while still looking for all the world like he only wanted to help. Which, Heck, he probably did but _dude._  
  
Harry had been the one to tell you to watch; apparently Norman had caught word about the Mayor's decision before he went off to his press conference and Harry, in his words, had 'seen that look in his eyes' and that there was probably going to be some fireworks at the press conference. The two of you, having upgraded from emails to a little instant messaging over Skype to help speed up the pace of conversations, had kept your eyes peeled for that and, man, Harry hadn't over promised on that score.  
  
_"Yeah; if you spend enough time around my dad you can always tell when he feels like someone's handed him an opportunity on a silver plate. Basically let my dad take a lap around him while he was already going ahead and announcing what he was going to do for the city during all this mess. He went into this hoping that it'd let him put the attack on him and his staff during the Macy's Parade behind him and the company with some good PR. What do you think? Mission accomplished?"_

_"Well... hey, I'd say Mission Accomplished." You typed in, pretty unironically in this case, as you scratched your head. "If Vulture wasn't old news by now then he's going to be old news before this is all said and done." Still you couldn't exactly be sure of how much credit would go to Norman's press conference in this case like Harry seemed to be indicating. Vulture was already over a month old by the time Max as Electro hit the scene and, man, if Electro didn't pretty much eclipse Vulture in pretty much every way you could think of.  
  
Disrupting people's lives? Simple, Electro had pretty much put the city into a major emergency situation by disrupting the power grid in the middle of the worst winter storm in your living memory and a whole bunch of other people's. Lives were on the line for Vulture too but it was much more concentrated; if you hadn't stopped Electro sooner who knew how many people might've frozen to death or died of complications relating to the extreme cold or lack of power. Electro just dominated on this score.  
  
Uniqueness? Well Tony Stark already primed people to accept and even understand the idea of a flight suit and Vulture's suit was way less complicated than the Iron Man suit that had previously been on the news. Plus Vulture's stuff was more like an act of industrial terrorism; yeah, awful especially in a place like New York but it's something that you could still reasonably grasp. Electro is a man who produces enough electricity on his own to overwhelm the Manhattan and broader New York energy grid and to make cars explode by waving his hands at them and shooting lightning. There was nothing and nobody like Electro and the way he posed his threat was entirely on a different scale. Vulture was individual acts of terror, Electro threatened to pretty much destroy New York's power and render it helpless.  
  
Finally there was just the fact that Norman had so little to do with Electro. Vulture was more common, smaller scale and didn't hurt as many people. Heck, the fact he was so crazy lent an air of sympathy to Oscorp, even if that sympathy was... questionable, considering what you potentially knew. Electro was on Doctor Connors' and his lab's lap. Heck, Norman being so far outside of what brought on Electro is part of what was making this little press conference of his possible; because he had nothing to do with it he could come in as the philanthropist looking to help; researching and developing a means to contain Electro, bringing in aid for people whose lives were disrupted by the power outage and generally donating what money he could to help causes that helped others.  
  
Norman was absolutely poised to have Vulture become old news regardless of anything he did. All these actions he'd taken were just icing on the cake. Heck at this point now he was just earning a few extra points by taking a jab at the Mayor for not more directly addressing the issue of the Vortex and the Blackouts. Which, hey, was a smart move to make on his part... provided the Mayor didn't hold a grudge...  
  
Then again, even if he did, was there much the Mayor could do about it with Norman lining up to dump money into the effort to help people and the research to keep Electro locked up. Really, what was the Mayor going to do? Go to the other big business in town, Stark Industries? As much of a fan as you were of Tony Stark even you saw the holes in that immediately; Stark Industries was currently paralyzed by Congressional Hearings and didn't even specialize in the same sort of bioengineering and medical science that Oscorp did. So Norman was the Mayor's only option... and so it stood to reason he could pretty freely earn more public points for himself with all of this.  
  
...  
  
Okay maybe Harry being so impressed with his dad wasn't so overblown.  
  
"I know right?" Was Harry's initial response before the typing popped back up. "It's honestly been kind of nice. It can be hard to tell when my dad's in a good mood or not generally put. You know, solemn guy, doesn't like to show his emotions a lot. Especially around other people." By the sound of it even around his own kid. Dude must've been seriously stoic, in that case. "However these last couple days you can tell he's in a good mood. Haven't seen him in one like this in a long time; pretty much been in a constant sort of, well, either 'normal' for my dad mood or in a bad one ever since the whole Vulture thing. It's been nice to have a change of tone around the place, ya know?"  
_

_"I bet! I know that when my Aunt and Uncle are in a good mood that I feel pretty good myself." You type in casually as you await Harry's response, the little '...' only taking a few moments before the next few messages came over.  
  
"Yeah, there's that of course. It also just feels like a cloud's been lifted over here, ya know? My dad's been in a pretty rotten mood ever since Toomes barged into Oscorp the first time. He never let it show much but he was more... well, more dad than normal, I guess is the best way to put it." You didn't exactly know what counted for 'normal' when it came to Norman Osborn so you just took Harry's word for it. "So it's not just that this is being put behind him professionally, it's being put behind all of us. Should make the last of Winter Break a little more... well, a little more relaxing before we end up going back to school."  
  
"Well I certainly hope so. Sounds like your Winter Break was pretty busy compared to mine, after all." Would being a billionaire's son be more busy than being a Superhero... yeah, probably. Then again you really didn't know what all went into it aside from making a bunch of appearances. It sounded exhausting to you considering you were only just opening up to a new set of friends recently. Being thrown into the middle of huge parties with people trying their hardest to be familiar with you sounded like a nightmare.  
  
"Yeah, it was. Man if I never see some of these people again it'd still be too soon." You winced at that; that sounded downright unpleasant. At least it did until Harry, finally, followed it up with a little laughing face. Still had to work on his timing when it came to communicating sarcasm. "Anyway, guess I'll see you at school? Gonna be pretty busy this weekend."  
  
"Yeah totally man, I'll see you at school." A quick nod was given and before you could sign off or give him a good old goodbye his account went dark. You stretched out a bit at that, standing up from your computer as you stretched your sore muscles.  
  
After spending all this time talking to Harry from a distance it'd be weird to get back into it in a school environment. Then again it was something you were going to have to get used to again with everyone after the break.  
_

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_"I honestly can't believe that they're still having us come into school."  
  
"Yeah, you, me and everyone else I think." You typed the message back into your phone before getting back to work on your computer. Ned was having trouble getting data on criminal activity for the maps he liked to make after the Electro fight. The Polar Vortex was essentially making that really hard to parse out; police and other state employees in New York were now pretty busy with the weather and making sure everybody would be safe through it so it wasn't as simple as listening into their radios and figuring out how stuff was playing out on the ground. In addition criminals might've been a bit more hesitant about heading out in this kind of sub-zero weather so it wasn't as if Ned could just puzzle in to where crimes were and weren't being committed.  
  
Heck, that was if crimes were even being reported; it'd be kind of hard to do so given how tied up everyone was in the brownouts and in the bad weather.  
  
Everything was just such a mess these past couple days for you and your stuff... which, hey, meant that you could at least sympathize with what everyone else was going through. Especially Liz.  
  
"Don't get me wrong, I was kind of looking forward to heading back to school. It was going to be nice to get back together with everyone and with the power situation being a little... you know, uncertain, I figured it'd at least be less of a pain. Especially after spending so much time with mom. Now the power's back on but the weather's getting even worse. Flash says his Mom's been screaming at anyone at the school she can still get on the phone about what they're doing."  
  
"Woof. Not quite that bad at my house but I can't say my Aunt and Uncle aren't exactly pleased. What does your mom think?" You leaned back in your seat and awaited the response which came in short enough order as Liz texted it back.  
  
"..."  
  
Boy she was taking a while to type out a message. Must be pretty long, given that the 'messaging typing' little thing was still going strong throughout this entire process and hadn't disappeared for a bit. Finally the text came on through.  
  
"I mean she's complaining about it. She'd probably call me in sick if we didn't need a doctor's note for it to be official. Just kind of stuck figuring out what to do; can't exactly wait out the Polar Vortex given how long they say it's expected to last. Truancy laws and what not."  
  
... That wasn't nearly as long as you were expecting it to be given how long she was apparently typing for.  
  
"Something else on your mind? Seems like you spent a lot of time on this one."  
  
...  
  
"Eh... just almost typed out something really stupid and made myself a bit angry that the thought even crossed my mind. It's cool though, just a dumb brain fart."  
  
Oh?  
_

_"Well hey, I've had more than my fair share of those myself, trust me." You quickly tapped in the reply as you leaned back in your seat, wincing at a good few number of the little brain hiccups you'd had over the past few months. Punching that concrete pillar head on while you were training stood out, but bigger and more consistent were probably the little ones you ended up having sort out while inventing the Web Shooters. Small little design flaws you'd made in the process of setting them up that, if you hadn't quickly looked over the final product for them and tested them, would've probably caused you some amount of trouble going forward.  
  
Still, you were also a more shy, awkward sort socially. God only knew how often you froze up when talking to folks like Gwen or, Heck, Liz! You never imagined chatting with people other than Ned before because, well, you'd never had the confidence for it. Now that you were these sorts of little brain farts happened all the time as you stopped to try to think about how you should respond in certain situations... like this one. In the end you came up with something you thought was appropriate and might be well intentioned.  
  
"If you want you can feel free to share, I won't judge." You offered, finally, before sending the whole text. It took a little while for a response to come back.  
  
"Just some stupid remark about the Truancy Laws. Something like 'and my mom being thrown in jail too for me skipping school is the last thing we need'. Hopefully you understand why I bit my lip there the first time." You winced at that; yeah you could practically feel her cringe from all the way across Queens.  
  
"Oof, yeah. They say laughter is the best medicine and time and all that but, yeah, jokes like that can feel more... cringey than not." You said with a wince as the reply came fast.  
  
"Yep, for real. Guess I can't keep that kind of stuff off my mind though."  
  
"Why, what's up?" You asked, genuinely curious, as you waited for the train of responses from Liz's end of the line.  
  
"Some of it's basic; my mom's still dealing with the lawyers to figure out what's going to her and what's State Evidence after my dad got put away so that's almost constantly background noise around the house. Some of its just the fact that the Spider-Man is still getting on the news, and more frequently as time goes on, also just keeps kind of rubbing it in. Not that I'm ungrateful for his help or that I think he did wrong by us but, you know."_

_  
"Yeah, I get that." Honestly you could even scarcely imagine what Liz must be feeling like; she had your full sympathy in all of this straight from the get go and, you had to admit, it did feel crummy that Spider-Man basically kept grinding salt into this wound for her. Understandable but crummy.  
  
"Heck, he's on the news again big time. Apparently he stopped some electric guy who was behind the Brownouts. Calling himself 'Electro'. That's just weird, I think."  
  
"What do you mean?" Well now you had more sympathy for how strange hearing about Spider-Man so often must've been for Liz; having Max brought up so casually in conversation was a bit of a weird thing, even if you didn't know him all that well.  
  
"I mean like, okay, Vulture. My dad didn't call himself that at any point, not even when mom and I see him in jail as part of all of this. That was just the moniker the Daily Bugle dropped on him that everyone else picked up on. If the news is right though then this guy is just literally running around calling himself 'Electro'. Not even like in a secret identity way with Spider-Man because that's just what he's calling himself now. I dunno, it just seems kind of scary, ya know?"  
  
"How do you mean, exactly?" You asked, raising an eyebrow, as Liz took a moment to respond.  
  
"Like, okay, with my dad it seemed like an open and shut thing. My dad had a motive, crazy as it maybe was, and he followed through on that motive. What he did was awful but like, you know, nothing Tony Stark probably wouldn't sneeze at. It's a flight suit with blade feathers, it's not exactly, you know, **super dangerous."** Tell that to your poor side. It still ached from time to time if you thought about that injury too hard. "Spider-Man was just some guy with a neat bit of tech and a talent for acrobatics too when he went after him. It was all, I dunno, manageable? It felt like it wasn't just out there. Now we got Electro, some dude who had some kind of power or technology capable of letting him Brownout Manhattan on and off for days and the police basically couldn't do anything but wait for Spider-Man to come and beat a guy like that up?  
  
"That just seems kind of extreme. Like, way more than I think people are giving it credit for. Maybe it's just because it's kind of sort of personal to me but I dunno."  
_

_You heaved a small sigh as you scratched the back of your head. You agreed with Liz to a degree, yeah, but... well, your agreement came from a slightly different place. After all you knew Max personally; you knew his story. You knew what happened to him and how it ended up changing him. So it was still scary, sure... but it was scary in a different context. Scary because you knew just how and why this was different than Liz's dad.  
  
"I actually knew the guy." You typed idly, surprisingly even yourself with that admission. "His name was Max Dillon. I only met him twice, admittedly, but he was a work friend of my Uncle's and he seemed like a really nice guy. Heck he helped arrange a little trip to the ESU laboratory he worked at for me because one of those times he visited he figured out how much I liked science and he and my Uncle just got along that well."  
  
...  
  
"Oh." The text almost perfectly conveyed how awkward Liz felt as she typed it out. Heck, you could almost imagine the unease she must've grimaced with. "Sorry then, Peter. I know what it's like to just have people talk at you about stuff like this."  
  
"It's okay, really. I get it and I don't even think you're wrong about this being a big deal and kind of scary." You tried to reassure her that she hadn't stepped on your toes before you continued on with your point. "Besides I can't exactly say that the guy you know as Electro is even the same as the guy I knew as Max Dillon. From what everyone's told me he's really changed. Badly at that." You sighed as you shook your head. "It happened at the lab to boot; the men who run the lab, Doctor Connors and Doctor Warren, were giving us a tour though I guess Connors was more into it. During it they showed us this experimental generator. It was something that was meant to help power the entire campus and beyond and it was supposed to work by running off of electricity generated off of genetically-modified eels and rays."  
  
...  
  
"Not gonna lie that sounds kind of crazy." You couldn't help but chuckle at that as you shrugged.  
  
"I can see how it'd sound like that but when you're right in front of it and seeing it work its really something else. Anyway, Max was working on the machine and toward the end of the tour, well, there was an accident. The tank holding the fish broke, water was everyone and the generator, I mean, it didn't blow up but man. It ended up basically hitting Max all at once and for a while too and it changed him somehow. I don't know the exact details of how it did but it changed him. The abilities he demonstrated; they aren't just some suit, weapon or invention; they're just powers he has as part of him now. Actual superpowers." You emphasized as you took a deep breath and continued typing. The fact that someone else like you, someone else with powers, had pretty much come into existence right in front of you was still hitting you pretty hard.  
  
"The powers themselves though they have terrible side effects that aren't pleasant for him; lack of sleep, not being able to eat and just constantly discharging electricity. It was so bad for him that he escaped from the hospital they were keeping him in because he wanted to go out, find Doctor Connors and Doctor Warren and force them to fix him somehow." You saw no sign of LIz typing as you went on... that fact alone helped you realize that you'd pretty much just spat out the entire story to her. "Sorry, rambling, you probably didn't need to hear all of that to get my point."  
  
"Maybe not but still, wow, that's something else." Liz admitted as you nodded your head in agreement on your end of the text conversation.  
  
"My point is that you're right. This is bigger and scarier than what happened with your dad. Your dad had a plan; he built his technology and he was still fundamentally human when he got done with it. Max was a freak accident." You winced at the use of 'freak' considering what had happened but... it's not like it didn't also fit. "Max has superpowers now because of something completely out of his or anyone else's control. That is scary because, well, if it can happen to Max it can happen to anyone, right?" You said as you could practically hear Liz shudder before typing out her next line.  
  
"Not gonna lie, kind of a scary thought." You nodded in agreement as you watched the little '...' pop up again. "Think I'm going to go ahead and do some stuff around the apartment before school comes up, Peter. I'll talk to you later." You nodded at that as the texts from Liz stopped coming, leaving you to your own thoughts as you set your phone to the side.  
  
As you looked on at your own hands you realized that Max wasn't even the first freak accident to make Superpowers in New York... and that additional thought really made you feel... certain, you guessed. Certain neither you or he would be the last.  
_

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_"Hey there Mr. Wilbur. This here's... yeah, it's Ben Parker. Hah, didn't think you'd remember me from the last time I called in..."  
  
You stopped moving on down the flight of stairs as you heard Uncle Ben speaking to somebody on the phone. Descending a couple more stairs so you could peak your head around to look into the living room you saw Uncle Ben sitting on his reclining chair, phone in hand as he leaned back. His forehead was a bit grimy from sweat and dust that had stuck to it and, hanging off the side of the chair, were some tools and garbage bags he'd been working with. You'd been hearing your Uncle working on and off all day downstairs; according to him he was trying to get back into the swing of things and, more importantly, get the house a bit more prepared for the Polar Vortex.  
  
You shuddered as, already, you could feel a great deal of warmth emanating from the living room. A quick look in deeper saw the culprit; the fireplace. Uncle Ben had stocked it up with some wood and let it go, a blaze now comfortably roaring in it. You had to imagine a great deal of the stuff in those trash bags he was carting around was soot and as he'd probably worked out of the fireplace in preparation for getting it lit. You and Aunt May had been a bit worried about Ben just jumping right back into housework when he got back from the hospital, considering that he'd taken a shock from Electro... but, well, that seemed to be a bit of what he needed. Your Uncle was up and moving again and, well, whatever angst he'd seemed to have concerning Max's fate was at least being distracted, by the work he was doing... or at least, that's how it seemed from where you were standing.  
  
"So listen, I imagine you've probably been getting a lot of calls like this already... yeah, yeah it's about the weather. Guessing you've already gotten word of the Mayor's decision? Yeah, figures."  
  
It didn't take you long to piece together who the Mr. Wilbur was Ben was talking about; Paul Wilbur, Midtown High's Principal. A bit of a stern-faced and serious man, Mr. WIlbur had the countenance and figure of a much more jovial and jolly individual; a nice way of saying that he looked like an overly serious Santa Claus, you supposed. You never really met the man yourself because, well, you hadn't really needed to before. You weren't the type of kid to get in trouble and if you got sick and needed an excused absence before Aunt May or Uncle Ben had been the ones to handle it. So you didn't exactly know Mr. Wilbur directly, just by reputation...  
  
Given that reputation among the student body was that Mr. Wilbur was ['some pig'](https://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2008/aug/charlotte/wilbur_500-75ad6387d76a97e16c7fc27e2be8778ffb995fd7.jpg) you figured that maybe the reputation was pretty skewed.  
  
"So listen, what's going to be the deal with excused absences? The city might not be closing the schools but I can't figure you all are really gonna go ahead and count off kids who can't show up. Especially folks who have to travel a ways in order to even get there." You gave a short 'oh' as you stood back and waited; so that's what Uncle Ben was calling about. You sat and waited as, presumably, Uncle Ben waited for Wilbur's response. "Listen, you know Peter's got health issues and the buses aren't exactly... yeah, yeah I can do my best to drive him in of course. Do own a truck. Still, don't you think...  
  
"Come on Paul." You watched as Uncle Ben stood up and scratched the back of his head. "You can't honestly be telling me I'm hearing what I'm hearing. It's sub-zero out there and we're getting tons of snow every single day and every single hour. At least tell me that it's not this way for the entire student body. You can't expect some of these kids..."  
  
"Their parents are working hard enough as it is." Uncle Ben remarked after pausing for a few seconds, presumably as Mr. Wilbur gave him some answer. "I know a lot of kids whose parents start work early and can't drive them in like that. So what, they need to just tough it out, go through the freezing cold and stick it out. That's unreasonable, Paul... Paul I know you're not about to hang-"  
  
Uncle Ben stopped suddenly as he heaved a great sigh, your Uncle clicking off the phone and putting it back into his pocket. He rubbed his face a bit, heaving a tired sigh as he dragged his fingers down and shook his head. "I swear to God, some people need a foot..." The rest was cut off as Uncle Ben muttered under his breath  
_

_You wince a little as Uncle Ben got done muttering, shaking his head as he scratched the top of it, clearly deep in thought. On the one hand you didn't want to bug him too much but... well, on the other hand, it seemed like your Uncle had a lot on his mind. Considering what else he'd gone through in the past week you wanted to be sure he was doing alright. Heck, it was his work friend this all had happened to and Uncle Ben didn't have a healing factor; he just took a shock that the doctors insisted meant he needed to stay at the hospital to keep an eye on. So, to keep from surprising him too much, you lightly knocked on the side of the wall of the staircase, bringing his attention to you before speaking.  
  
"Hey there Uncle Ben." You commented idly, waving a bit as your Uncle let out a small breath, relaxing slightly as he smiled at you.  
  
"Hey there kiddo, how are ya? Sorry if you overheard any of that. Just trying to talk to your school about this whole mess with getting you there. Think I might have to break out the chains before the weekend's over." Your Uncle chuckled at that as you nodded in understanding.  
  
"Sounds good Uncle Ben, I'll help with that if you want." You saw your Uncle raise a hand and shake his head; clearly he felt like he could do it on his own just fine. That being the case you decided to move rapidly to what was your main point. "I guess I'm doing fine, thanks for asking... what about you Uncle Ben? Are you doing okay? I mean after all the... everything that happened." You felt somewhat awkward phrasing it like that but you couldn't even really begin to think of how to better describe it than 'the everything' because... well, Hell, so much had happened! Uncle Ben's smile softened a bit as he waved you into the living room before taking a seat on his recliner, you quickly moving in to keep eye contact with your Uncle.  
  
"Me? I'm doing okay Peter, doing okay. Max gave me a bit of a shock there but the doctors gave me a clean bill of health. Worst I'll have are a few scars from where it happened." Uncle Ben unrolled the right side of his shirt's collar, causing you to wince at the angry looking red marks on his shoulder. As gross as your own rapid healing could be you had to admit it was better than carrying around those sorts of scars for so long.  
  
"That's great Uncle Ben, really I'm glad you're doing alright in that regard... but, well..." You shifted around as you tried to think of the right way to phrase it; that wasn't entirely what you were asking about, after all. Uncle Ben seemed to pick up on this before you could even articulate it as the old man just nodded, a sad sigh leaving his lips as he shrugged.  
  
"As for the rest... well Peter it's definitely the strangest thing I've ever seen. Can't say I've ever seen someone turn into a living battery before in my life... but it's not the worst thing I've seen. Have had more terrible things happen to people who were closer to me too." You figured; fighting in a war for any amount of time, save for maybe [forty-five minutes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War), would lead to that kind of stuff. "So it's not like this is something I'm unprepared to handle. Still, it's a damn shame. Max was a good fella, had a lot of his life ahead of him. I enjoyed working with him and I enjoyed going out with him and the other guys. Thought he would've fit right in with all of us... but... well, that got taken away from him.  
  
"Still, I'm fine Peter. I've gotten used to handlin' stuff... well, not exactly like this but stuff I'd consider even worse than this. One of the... well, hard to call it a benefit, but it's part of getting older is that you learn to deal with tragedies like this." That seemed really sad to you but you nodded, trying to understand the sentiment as best you could.  
  
"So... have you heard anything from Doctor Connors? About... well, anything I guess?" You asked, somewhat awkwardly, as Ben heaved a long, drawn out sigh.  
  
"No, not yet Peter. Curt says that stuff like this takes time; that he'll need a lot of trials to ensure he doesn't make it worse or hurt Max even more. Plus his lab will be opening back up to the school soon and... well, he's got other work to do if he's going to keep getting the funds to research how to help Max." Uncle Ben shook his head, looking off to the side. "Hopefully he can though. Just hope he'll put everything he has into it."  
_

_"You don't... you don't think he'd still focus on regrowing his arm, do you?" You asked, sounding uncertain as you spoke. You knew what Uncle Ben had said before and the... rumors about Doctor Connors and his fall from grace into what some, if not many, described as 'quackery' were maybe not as unsubstantial as you might've thought before. Still the idea that a man whose skill and intellect in the field of biological science you considered so great, that you admired for his abilities and his insights into the field... well, the idea that he'd put to the side something that had happened under his watch for his own more personal experiments was just a little bit unsettling.  
  
"Well Peter... I don't know. I don't think so. Nothing in that lab looked to me like it had a great deal to do with that. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I can certainly say he's still not entirely comfortable with his loss, that much is clear to me. I have no doubt that, if time allowed for it, he's probably still putting work into that. More than that though Peter I just mean that in order to keep his lab open at all he's going to have a lot more on his plate... and knowing Curt he'll make sure that lab stays open first and foremost. Now that's good for Max over all but... well, it is going to slow things down." You nodded at that; yeah, you guess you understood that. Still though...  
  
"I know... and I guess I can understand if he's less inclined to put all of his focus on it given Max tried to hurt him but... I dunno..."  
  
"I hear you Peter. I really do hope that Curt was telling us the truth and he's put that mess behind him. That all of this had nothing to do with that old focus of his back when your mother and father still worked with him. I really do want to think that Curt'll put the free time and manpower he's got outside of his official work on fixing up Max... but who knows Peter. All I know is that the Curt Connors I saw in there felt a lot like the Curt Connors I saw way back when." You nodded at that Uncle Ben heaved a sigh, smiling at you as he stood up and placed a hand on your shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be alright though, kiddo. These things have a way of working out in the end. It might take time but things will get better."  
  
You smiled at that, or at least did your best to; you really hoped Uncle Ben would be right.  
  
"Anyway; gonna go ahead and start putting on the snow chains just in case the school doesn't change its mind. You rest up Pete; enjoy the last of your break. God knows it'd be a shame if your last little experience was this whole stinkin' affair." You nodded your head at that as Uncle Ben meandered off toward the garage, leaving you to think to yourself for a while.  
  
It really would be sad if Electro was the last, big thing that happened this break, huh?_

**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_"Gotta say, was kind of touch and go there for a bit but this Christmas and New Year turned out to be pretty good, if you ask me."  
  
You know, after all the texting and typing you'd been doing with some of the other people you knew, having a phone call with someone was actually a pretty nice change of pace. You'd decided as part of your round up of friends to have a word with Gwen; you hadn't heard from her in a bit and you knew from how she described it that her Christmas, given her dad's whole thing as a police officer, was looking good... but she was still nervous about it, especially given what happened on Thanksgiving.  
  
By the sounds of her voice, things had turned out better than she might've expected at some point. You didn't need to take long to guess what, exactly, might've been the stress point in the Holiday though.  
  
"I'm guessing that 'touch and go' had something to do with the Brownouts and the Electro guy, right?" You asked, leaning back on your bed as you heard a quick hum from the other side.  
  
"Can't say I'm exactly surprised that the news about his name's spread around so quickly. The dude apparently won't stop telling people at the precinct and the prison to call him it, after all." You winced at that on your end of the line, glad that there was some separation so Gwen couldn't see you doing so. "Still, right on the money there Peter; Electro was the big worry point for the holiday for us. Which would've been kind of a downer if Christmas went so well and then... you know, back to the usual."  
  
"Christmas went well, then?" You decided to ask first before dipping into the rest given that, well, you had a strong feeling it'd feel a little awkward for you.  
  
"Oh yeah. My dad actually ended up not having to work as much around then so we got to... you know, celebrate the holiday together. Probably doesn't sound too novel but after this past year... you know. Woof."  
  
"Woof." You said in rough agreement as Gwen carried on.  
  
"It was just really nice to actually have my dad to myself for a bit. I get that he has his job and, you know, 'Protect and Serve' and all that good stuff. Just wish that he wasn't quite so... enthusiastic sometimes. It can be kind of a pain."  
  
"Sounds like it. Can't exactly say I know what it feels like given my Aunt and Uncle's work but, you know, it does sound like it sucks." Which really was the best you could do as far as sympathy; Uncle Ben and Aunt May were so... there and available to you even with both of them doing their jobs and working hard. It'd be hard for you to imagine feeling like they weren't around or that you couldn't even celebrate the holidays with them. Heck, the worst you could say was that it sucked not having Ben around for the Ball Drop on New Years...  
  
Then again you were running around chasing after Max as Spider-Man and he was being taken care of over a shock Max gave him so, you know, not the same as what Gwen described.  
  
"Appreciate it, at least. Still, Christmas went well and then... welp, what happens on New Years Eve but another issue like with Vulture at Thanksgiving... but you know, worse." You winced at the frustrated tone of voice Gwen had. "Good God in Heaven; Brownouts in New York City. You never think you'd see something like that but, hey, guess all it takes is some guy running around with electric powers to cause that kind of havoc, right?"  
  
"Yeah... no kidding. Kind of a-" Don't you dare say shock, Parker, "-surprise." You bit your tongue after that as you heard Gwen give a hum of consent.  
  
"Yeah... and of course dad was set on going out and dealing with it and the response himself. On top of keeping an eye out for Spider-Man in case he came swinging by. Because, you know, everything weird these days ends up either in my dad's department or on his lap directly... and usually because he put it there himself." Gwen gave a short, exasperated sigh. "Sorry, sorry. Good vibes, good feelings; this holiday's been great." You almost have to laugh at that as it sounds like Gwen was taking a moment to purge the bad vibes.  
_

_"Yeah, same... the holiday's been great except for... a few things." You said slowly, scratching the back of your neck awkwardly as Electro popped back into your head again, especially given the current conversation.  
  
"Something happen over there Peter? Your Aunt and Uncle okay?" Gwen asked, sounding genuinely curious, as you nodded to yourself.  
  
"Yeah, they're okay... well I mean, we had a bit of a scare with Uncle Ben but it wasn't anything major... I mean it was but... agh." You shook your head. On the one hand you never wanted to feel like you were using your friendship with Gwen for this kind of stuff. It was unfair to her considering her own relationship with her father and you never wanted to feel like this was the only reason you and her were friends. On the other hand... you had a personal reason for this and, well, it was something you wanted to know. Not about the police themselves, another reason you didn't want to talk to Gwen about stuff her dad said generally, but about Max himself. You didn't want information to use against her dad or her colleagues you just... you just wanted...  
  
"Look, Gwen, I'd hate to ask this but it's very personal to us. You see, we knew Max..." You paused, realizing Gwen might not know Electro by his actual name. "Electro. We knew Electro. Max Dillon was his name. He was a friend of my Uncle's."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Oh my God, Peter. I'm so sorry. I didn't know! That's so awful... Hell, I feel awful for ragging on him! I'm really sorry."  
  
"Hey it's okay it is a weird situation. It's not even my point... look, like I said, before all of this he was my Uncle's friend. If you hear anything about him... could you let me know? Anything I can pass along to my Uncle would probably mean a lot to him. Just to get rid of the uncertainty." You said awkwardly, a half truth if ever there was one.  
  
"Of course Peter! Jeez, that's awful, of course I'll help with that." You breath a sigh of relief at how easy that was as Gwen fumbled with her phone a bit. "I can't exactly say I know everything that's going on right now but I can pass on a little bit of information I've been able to pick up. Is that fine?"  
  
"I mean, yeah, of course Gwen. I've got the time." You said earnestly as you could practically hear Gwen nod on the other end.  
  
"Alright let's see... well I'm not sure if you've noticed on the news but Electro... Max, he's got a few new accessories on him." You had noticed; you'd originally taken the two rings around both of his wrists that were connected at the center to be some kind of handcuff... but they looked pretty advanced. "Well, apparently Doctor Connors and Doctor Warren designed Max's suit to open up originally so they could more easily run tests directly or keep an eye on his condition. You can see how that worked out in what few videos there of what he got up to. So they designed these little... locks, I guess. They're meant to lock his gloves so they won't open up to let him shoot out more electricity. So... I'm sorry to say but they're probably not gonna let him out of that suit if they can help it. At least not until they can fix him."  
  
"That... sucks to hear." Max was now essentially a prisoner in the suit meant to help him contain his powers. That wasn't great to hear... but it meant he wouldn't be able to escape easily, right?  
  
"On the plus side they might let him out of the suit if Oscorp can follow through on the cell. Oscorp's been commissioned to do some work to help contain him given their expertise in building quarantine rooms for hospitals all around the world. They work with a lot of plastics and such so they're basically retrofitting a quarantine room into a non-conductive cell. It's... kind of beyond my understanding but it makes enough sense, I guess. If they can get it to work and it can contain him they might let him open up inside the room."  
  
You heave a sigh of relief; that at least sounded nice. Both in terms of containing him and in terms of letting him breath a little bit... hopefully.  
  
"Anything more in specific you want to know? If I haven't heard anything about it I can try to ask."  
_

_"Will they allow visitors anytime soon... or, maybe the better question in this situation is 'can' they allow visitors anytime soon?" You asked over the phone, awkwardly scratching the back of your head as you did so. You knew for certain that you weren't exactly wanting to visit Max anytime soon yourself and, Heck, you couldn't even really be sure if Uncle Ben was remotely interested in the idea. Still... you had to at least try and ask, right? You had this opportunity right in front of you and, well, if he did and there was a chance he could then you needed to explore the possibility.  
  
...  
  
The sound of Gwen sucking air in through her teeth made you wince.  
  
"No go, huh?"  
  
"Well I mean I can't say 100% for certain that it's a no... but, you know, with the way my dad and his coworkers talk about Max it seems... kind of unlikely. When the police throw around stuff like 'danger to himself, everyone around him and society at large' that's usually a good sign that they're not looking to allow visitation rights. Not even to punish the guy in question but to keep him from accidentally hurting anyone who came close... or... you know." Gwen cut herself off there without further elaboration but you got her point; or on purpose, which Electro seemed all too capable of. "Besides, Rikers Island isn't exactly an open and friendly place to begin with. It's talked about in the same breath as Alcatraz for a reason; they put some serious people away in there. Plus given that they don't even have a cell totally ready for him yet..."  
  
"It'd just be a really, really bad idea." You remarked, understanding Gwen's point almost immediately as you could practically hear the wince on the other side of the line.  
  
"I'm really sorry about this Peter. It sucks when people get in this position with folks they know but... you know, right now it's just..."  
  
"Yeah don't worry, I get it Gwen. Max was a straight up danger to the entire city and doesn't even really sound like he cares about it if everything people are saying is true. It's... probably gonna be a while before it'd ever be a good time for us to see him." You really wanted Max to have a speedy recovery but... well, wanting that didn't change the fact that he was literally going around and calling himself 'Electro' now. That was just an event horizon right there.  
  
"I'm really sorry again, Peter. Listen I'll do my best to keep my ear open for any more news I can share..." Gwen stopped talking for a moment as you perked up at the sudden silence. "Sorry, dad called me. Wants to talk about how I'm going to be getting to school while this whole Polar Vortex thing is going down. I'll talk to you later Peter."  
  
"Talk to you later, Gwen." The call ended right there as you sighed, falling flat on your back as you rubbed your face. This past week had really been screwed up. Right now school sounded like it'd be a good bit of normalcy, all things considered._


	49. The Terror of Mathematics

"Alright then, Peter, just hold onto that like this."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Keep your fingers there, don't let them budge... it'll just take me a few seconds..."  
  
You nodded as you sat in the chair, hands as still as you could make them as you watched Aunt May go to work, a bit of string from a nearby thimble being guided by her fingers with a needle as she passed it on through one of the many, many stitches that were going into setting up the zipper of this little number. While New York was by no means constantly under the effects of frigid, snowy weather winter up in the north of the United States was still, more often than not, a potent challenge for folks. People who didn't take heed and buy winter clothes ahead of time usually ended up scrambling for them afterward, going to big shops in the hopes of having coats and snow pants and the like in stock.  
  
Of course that wasn't an option for some people; usually it came down to not having the right size. While you could get a lot in New York, it wasn't guaranteed that it'd be in stock until you specially ordered it... and usually if you were placing a special order then matters of cost came into effect. That's why Aunt May usually saw her business, more in line with arts, crafts and the like for most of the year, shift gears into what was essentially winter apparel in the winter. While her skills in handicrafts didn't perfectly translate it gave her a lot of practice with managing the sorts of materials she was usually asked to work with in winter clothes. Plus your Aunt, being the multi-talented woman she was, was also a good tailor to begin with. You couldn't count the number of times she'd saved some article of clothing around the house from being thrown in the trash with a good stitch, much needed patches or entirely replacing things like zippers, buttons or entire parts of an outfit.  
  
In the midst of the worst winter storm that everyone could remember for a good while, the Polar Vortex, though? Even people who'd been relatively prepared with what would ordinarily be adequate clothes for a moderate winter ended up needing a little something extra for the much harsher weather. On top of coats they were asking for gloves, scarfs, hats or even masks. The last of which, you had to admit, made you nervous to look at. With your career as a Superhero you were starting to associate ski masks less with perfectly reasonable and useful piece of clothing meant to help keep your face free of frostbite and more ad hoc, last minute disguise.  
  
"Thank you for the help Peter. I swear, the material just doesn't sit right between my fingers while I'm trying to stitch these bits and pieces in. I don't know how you're getting it to sit so well. My hands must be going a bit shaky." Aunt May said with a small laugh as you chuckled, nervously, flexing your fingers a bit as you used your Wall Crawling abilities to keep a good grip on the fabric.  
  
"What can I say Aunt May, just doing what you asked me to do." You said as calmly and cooly as you could as your Aunt just nodded.  
  
"I know, I know dear. Still, I appreciate it. I've got so many orders coming in that this'll save me a nice bit of time. Who knows, might end up with enough time to finish a few more while I'm at it." You nodded at that; it was good that even with so much traffic down thanks to the blizzard that Aunt May was still finding a way to keep busy. You had a feeling that your Aunt and Uncle would go stir crazy if they were forced to just sit around and do nothing for most of the day thanks to the weather. They were just those kinds of very active and proactive people.  
  
"Where are all these orders coming from anyway, Aunt May?" You asked, genuinely curious, as your Aunt furrowed her brow in thought as she pulled the answer from memory.  
  
"A lot of it is people around the neighborhood who know what I do. Especially folks who might've already come to me earlier this winter for some replacements or repairs to some of their winter clothes. Some of it is a bit broader than that though. Though the biggest order I've gotten so far actually came from Anna."  
  
"Mrs. Watson?" You asked, tilting your head. 'Biggest order' gave you a lot of different possible meanings running through your head but, coughing into your fist, you stifled your usually swift tongue. "What was she looking for?"  
  
"She's looking for a little ensemble for her niece." Aunt May pursed her lips together as she looked up. "Suppose it'd be best to tell you so you can be prepared ahead of time and not say anything about the situation." You blinked but nodded as Aunt May heaved a small sigh. "Her niece, Mary, will be moving in with Anna and her husband for the next little while. There's been a bit of an issue concerning her brother that Anna's been handling... well, like usual."  
  
Man, just the way Aunt May said it told you that it was a bit of an awkward situation.

"Yeaaah... I'm just gonna go ahead and not say anything about that." You said with a quick shrug, your lips pulling into a thin, awkward line as Aunt May nodded her head.  
  
"A good idea should Anna come by to talk about it. Just thought I'd let you know so that you don't accidentally trip into it." On that note you had to appreciate the heads up from Aunt May. Judging by the sounds of it this was turning into a bit of a familial quagmire that you didn't want to accidentally step on a land mine and trigger. Best to know where they are ahead of time and, by the sounds of it, it would be best to just shut up and nod your head anytime her brother came up, if he did at all.  
  
"So how long is she going to be staying here anyway over this 'issue'? Like, would she need to start school here or what?" You asked, genuinely curious, as Aunt May nodded her head.  
  
"That seems to be about the short and long of it. Mary will be staying for at least a few months. Probably longer given what's going to be worked on while she's away. Naturally she'll need to pick up and start again at another school which is just so sad. That kind of thing can be very rough on people... though I suppose the internet means she'd still be able to stay in touch with her old friends Upstate." You nodded at that. Still even with internet a long-distance thing could be rough. You managed it because it was easy for you to actually get in contact with Ned when all was said and done; it wasn't that hard to physically visit him. Just being torn away from your peer group over something going on with your folks just sounded all kinds of rough.  
  
"What schools are Anna considering? I've got to guess Midtown High's one of them." You said with a slight nod as Aunt May tapped her finger against the cup.  
  
"It's definitely the one Anna's aiming at. Midtown's a very high-end school after all. For anyone it'd be a good school to get into and... well, you know Anna. Always pushing everyone to do their best. It's one of the wonderful things about her... most of the time." You nodded at that as May continued taking a crack at the dress she was working on. "She should be arriving in the next week or two after things get settled with where she's going to school."  
  
"I see. Well I hope she enjoys staying at Anna's house." As loud and upfront as Anna could be she really was a good woman and a good friend of your family, so you could only hope it'd be a good place for this girl, Mary, to stay.  
  
"One hopes so. To make it a little easier for her to get used to the neighborhood Anna wants to introduce her around, Make her feel welcome. It'll mostly be a bunch of little stops around but she's asked Ben if he wouldn't mind helping Mary move in when she arrives. While that's going on I would like you to introduce yourself Peter; it'll be nice if she knows there's at least someone her age around." You nod at that, internally frowning a little bit as, thankfully, Aunt May shook her hand. "Don't get me wrong; if you two are gonna get along like cats and dogs I don't want you to force yourself to spend time with her just because of her situation, goodness that'd just be awful." May said as she shook her head, a slight laugh in her voice as you, admittedly, took a small breath of relief.  
  
"It's just good manners to introduce yourself to a new neighbor and to try to make the effort to be civil is all. If you two just aren't going to get along then, well, at that point you just have to do what we do with the Johnsons a few streets down."  
  
"... Smile and wave but don't say anything?"  
  
"Exactly." You snorted at the slight smirk on Aunt May's face as she finished up a particularly stubborn bit of the stitching, sticking her tongue out for a moment, pretending she was doing so in order to focus, before looking up at you. "I hope you won't mind too terribly Peter. I know how shy you can be around new people but it would mean a lot to Anna and Mary, I'm sure."

"Well, I have been trying to be a bit more sociable these days." You remark with a slight shrug, scratching at the back of your head as your Aunt looked over at you.  
  
"I have been noticing you've been spending more time out of the house these days Peter. Trying to make some new friends." Well, yeah... half of it was that, sure. Not always intentionally even, unless you counted Gwen, but sure he could work with that as part of the truth.  
  
"Yeah. You know I guess with just how hectic and crazy everything's been lately it's just... you know, one of those 'life's too short' things. Figured I could actually try and experience some new things." Especially when one of those new things were a set of superpowers you just so happened to spawn out of nowhere. Aunt May nodded, smiling warmly as she reached up and tousled your hair.  
  
"Well Peter I'm glad to hear it. Just don't push yourself too hard is all I'll say. It's a good thing for a boy your age to start exploring his limits, after all."  
  
"Yeah, yeah totally." You said with a light chuckle as you scratched at the back of your head. The awkwardness of the unsaid in all that was quickly overlooked as Aunt May finally gave a short grunt of satisfaction as she finished up her stitching.  
  
"Alright Peter, thank you darling. Feel free to run along now, I've gotten all the help I needed." You nodded and waved at your Aunt, quickly making your way away from the table as you absorbed the entire conversation. Well on the plus side so long as you didn't make the meeting horribly awkward it sounded like you'd be getting a new neighbor. Something to look forward to, you guessed.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


"..."  
  
"..."  
  
"Dude... what is wrong with your house? It's way too cold!"  
  
"It's my parents." Ned sighed as the both of you stayed in your heavy, long sleeve shirts that still left the both of you shivering ever so slightly. While it was by no means freezing cold in the Lee household as even at your worst guess it was probably only actually around sixty degrees inside the house, that was still way too cold for the kind of chills the entire place was being subjected to. Even within the walls of the house, with Ned's window firmly shut, you could practically feel the cold radiating off the glass and seeping through the very edges of the window. It all went on to give the entire house a generally cold atmosphere that was punctuated by... well, no better way to describe it than wind chills that left you having to lock your jaw ever so slightly to keep yourself from inadvertently chattering your teeth.  
  
"Like dude..."  
  
"I know, I know. You know how they can get, Peter!" You had to sigh at that and nod your head very slowly. Ned's folks were very thrifty people; it was half of how they could afford to not only live in such a nice house in Queens but also afford all the stuff you saw in Ned's house. They were smart about where they cut their costs and what they put that saved money toward and while the moment to moment of that kind of living didn't necessarily give immediate benefits the long course of their time being smart with their money ended up with them being pretty comfortable. You couldn't deny it; the Lees were good with money. By all means you would say they were probably better with it than May or Ben even and your Aunt and Uncle would probably agree...  
  
But good God did that thrifty attitude sometimes manifest itself in some truly crazy ways from time to time. Like now when you were freezing your butt off in the middle of what was a fully furnished house that could, absolutely, warm itself up way more than it was. You could appreciate wanting to do right by your wallet and the environment, of course but... man, there were limits.  
  
"You know I never would've bothered springing for the cooling features on my computer if I knew that my house was going to be one big old cooler for my PC." Ned remarked, dryly as you both scooted up to his computer, Ned giving his hands a quick clap and a rub in order to heat them up before getting to work.  
  
"For real, you're probably saving so much on water right now it's crazy." You joked as Ned gave a dry laugh.  
  
"You say that but I'm pretty sure my mom would agree with you." Ned remarked dryly as you both got down to what you'd gotten together today for; namely Ned's computer activities. "Sorry I haven't been able to keep the map up to date. Lot of problems with getting the information I usually use." You nodded at that, shrugging your shoulders.  
  
"Hey man it's no problem. You were busy and then... well, hey, I can't imagine it's exactly easy to get much reliable stuff out of the police when it comes to crime or where everybody is considering the weather and, you know..."  
  
"Electro, yeah." Ned said as he brought up the most recent copy of the map. "I can make some best guesses but this whole thing really showed me something; the holes in how I've been handling how we're gathering information like this." You see Ned scratch at his head as he frowned.  
  
"How do you mean, exactly?" You scoot up in your chair, pulling up alongside Ned as he waved at the computer screen.  
  
"Well... okay so this system was working before because I was able to listen in to the police broadcasts or watch the local news in order to get a good idea of what was going on. The police would describe stuff going down in neighborhoods you'd been, reports on crimes would slow down or speed up and the local news would show if crimes were moving out of a certain spot or moving back in. A lot of it was based on the police having the information themselves, sharing it with the media and not being... you know, wholly distracted." You nodded at that as Ned waved his hands at the map again before pointing out the window at the blizzard.  
  
"Now though? The police are still doing their best to keep up with crime but they've also got to keep a lot of other emergencies in mind! Heck, I keep hearing more and more traffic reports than I do about crimes in progress now and I can't say for certain if that's just because there's less crime or if it's because the Polar Vortex has the police focusing on other things. Which means they aren't sharing as much of the information Spider-Man could use with either the news or on their own police channels which means..."  
  
"We effectively get locked out every time the police end up overwhelmed by some emergency." You finished as Ned scratched his head.  
  
"Or worse whenever they decide to go quiet on something. Like I was doing my best to try to keep an eye on signs of Electro on the police broadcasts but they weren't being too open about it. Considering Electro was, you know, so obvious and out in the open that didn't change much for us then but... well..."  
  
Yeah, you got the picture; you both were way too dependent on the police or police-fed channels for this kind of information.

"There's got to be another source for this kind of information." You stroked your chin at that, rubbing at Ned nodded along, the pudgy young man leaning back in his seat as you shrugged at him. "Got any ideas?" You see Ned give a short trill as you waved you off.  
  
"'Got any ideas'. Course I've got ideas dude... just not a lot that are super feasible." You blinked at that as Ned turned around, the young man rubbing at his face a bit as he pointed to the computer screen. "So... we've got a bit more cyber security now so that when we're loitering around these sites that people won't notice us and we've moved where our phones are at any given time by playing with our GPS signals and bouncing them in the wrong way. This is good stuff, this is fine stuff... my problem is that it isn't enough for the sort of additional stuff that immediately comes to mind for keeping a better track of the police and where crimes are happening."  
  
"So our security's good but... not 'that' good."  
  
"Yeah; it's not 'try to hack into the CCTV cameras to see what's going on at a street level' good... even if it was though I can't possibly keep an eye on enough cameras for that to make a meaningful difference when it comes to scouting stuff out broadly and looking for crimes! Even then that'd only help with street level crimes unless we got **super illegal** and started breaking into the security cameras inside buildings... which would have their own passwords and their own security systems, mind you! None of that even goes into how badly we'd be punished by the police if we got caught which..."  
  
"Yeah that doesn't seem like the kind of thing a couple layers of proxies." You admitted as just the thought of trying to break into police run and operated cameras made you sweat... and you wouldn't even be the guy doing it!  
  
"Yeah no kidding." Ned said, running a hand through his hair. "That leaves out breaking into the police database itself; even if that was connected to the public network they'd have so many layers of security there that I'd probably be ferreted out before I managed to crack one password, never mind the several I'd probably need to break through in order to get a more direct idea about what the police know about crime... and, again, I need to reiterate-"  
  
 **"Super illegal."** You repeated with emphasis as Ned nodded.  
  
"Yeah. It'd make this whole vigilante thing look minor in comparison. Plus, again, I couldn't even possibly begin to look over all that data instantly without just downloading it and that would take time which... again, not feasible while you're out and about." You nod again, crossing your arms as you do so.  
  
"For real."  
  
"The other stuff I could do is so basic and normal too. Watch the news, keep an eye on twitter feeds, use the official NYPD portal to look up stuff. I do all that anyway now though and that's not going to make up for the kind of information we lose out on when the police go quiet."  
  
"So is there just... nothing we can do?" Ned shook his finger at that as he opened up another photo and immediately started opening pretty much every file inside. Revealing... dozens of spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel, maps upon maps upon maps of the various New York Neighborhoods and fat stacks of charts.  
  
"Not exactly. If I can't take a proactive, in the moment step... I _can_ look backwards at least to. With all of this data I've got here I might be able to work up a statistical model that could tell us where and when we might usually expect crime given an average across several years..." Ned said though he looked terribly, terribly pale while doing so. You had to sweat at that; the amount of terror that was palpable in Ned was kind of frightening.  
  
"So... what's the downside to this one then?" You had to ask, you had to know what was inspiring so much dread in your friend. He turned to you, eyes wide as he grabbed onto the front of your shirt, causing your Spider-Sense to go off for a moment before it quieted down.  
  
"Peter... Peter... it's... IT'S SO! MUCH! MATH!" Ned shook you with each word as your body barely moved thanks to the difference in your levels of strength.

"Ned... [my dear friend Ned."](https://youtu.be/sQ9NOV3KNpY?t=22) You placed your hands gently upon Ned's shoulders, forcing a wistful look onto your face even as you stared deeply and intently at him. "When I asked for your help in being a vigilante, I always knew that the risks would be great. That we'd be putting ourselves in the way of harm... and of the law. I knew that the road ahead would be hard... but I could have never imagined that it would be this hard. That such hardships would befall you; my partner. My best friend." You heave a dramatic sigh, blinking away the barest hint of tears as you gave a slow shake of your head. "These hardships are for me to bear, Ned. They were not something you and I had known. If it would be the best for you... go home, Edward Lee. I cannot blame you for such a decision. It would be unfair of me to ask you to share in this burden."  
  
...  
  
"Don't you patronize me."  
  
At that you immediately cracked up, a great fit of belly laughter rocked you as you leaned on Ned for support, your laughter echoing in the room and likely down the hall as it was shortly joined by a[ full fit of laughter](https://youtu.be/wgtMW38vsUs?t=44) from Ned. The young man's gut roiled and rumbled as you both gasped out, gasping for breath and wheezing from the fits of hysterical laughter that the both of you had fallen into. It took a good half a minute for the both of you to finally pull yourself back from that brink, taking deep, greedy breaths as you sought the air that your own amusement had denied you. Ned wiped at his brow as he took a deep breath, giving a short 'hoooo' to help force out the last bit of laughter as he coughed a little.  
  
"Anyway."  
  
"ANYWAY!" You both chuckled again as Ned shook his head.  
  
"Just give me some time to organize all of this and get it sorted. There isn't data for literally every single day of the year compiled so I'll need to get creative. Until then..."  
  
"Hey dude, take all the time you need. I wasn't... I mean, obviously I was joking earlier, but I wasn't joking when I said it'd be unfair to expect you to do stuff like this automatically." Ned nodded as he shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Hey dude it's cool, I'm in with this stuff now so not much point in backing out over a little math right? It'll... well, not easy but doable." With that you both nodded and agreed to the task at hand. Until Ned was more prepared to get into the work itself, however, you both decided to spend one last weekend watching some television before you'd end up having to go back to school come Monday. One last enjoyable evening before the break was over.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
Well, hey. Just because Ned didn't have access to all the information he wanted didn't mean you outright couldn't go out swinging as Spider-Man, right?  
  
You know... despite everything, despite all the stuff that happened these past couple weeks... you had to admit, swinging around as Spider-Man just felt kind of... fulfilling now? In a way that you'd been struggling with a bit ever since you had that run-in with the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and the talk with Uncle Ben about Doctor Connors. As you jumped off one building and fired off a Webline to swing you past a particularly open intersection in Queens you thought hard about that. For the past two weeks, it felt like, you'd been wondering if this whole thing with Spider-man was... well, was necessarily the best thing you could be doing.  
  
The Devil had a point, and God if you never thought you'd ever say think that kind of thing outside of a particularly inattentive reading of _Paradise Lost._ You were a teenager swinging around and potentially putting yourself in real danger to just beat up on common crooks, something the police could potentially handle on their own. Sure, Vulture had been a problem but now Vulture was in jail and, well, the dude was just some smart guy with a suit. No suit meant he wasn't much more dangerous than any other crooks the NYPD had to deal with. Why go out and risk your life when you had other ways of giving back to the world?  
  
Heck, why waste your talents going after something that was just fun and enjoyable for you when there were other things you could be doing that were potentially more helpful. Great Power, Great Responsibility, like Uncle Ben said.  
  
Then Electro happened and... as much as it sucked, as much as you hated how it all went down...  
  
You also felt like it gave this whole thing new purpose. Spider-Man did have a use; there weren't just regular crooks out there taking advantage of average folks trying to get rich quick. It wasn't even just people like the folks Tony Stark took care of or that the Devil beat up. Heck it wasn't even just about the Vulture. Someone like Electro, someone like you, popped out of nowhere and pretty much crippled the city... and you were the only person who could stop him. Spider-Man was needed.  
  
Your powers were needed.  
  
It helped shake you out of that funk that had been building up and took a massive weight off of your shoulders. It let you just enjoy being Spider-Man again without having to think too hard on it. Much as the city might not've liked having a vigilante swing around, hey, you were here to stay now. No way your conscience would let you rest easy if you just sat back and let another Electro go wild.  
  
Spider-Man was here to stay.  
  
"..." You grinned under your mask a bit as, after a bit of parkour, you fired off a handful of Weblines and started doing some wild swings through the air before, finally, just letting go. "WOOHOOOO!" You cried out, launching yourself high up into the air as you flipped and tumbled around, seeing the sky and the ground roll around in your vision before, finally, throwing yourself down into a straight dive before firing off another Webline to swing swiftly through the streets.  
  
Who'da thunk that this whole situation could have a nice little silver lining.  
  
As you continued to swing along you suddenly heard a small crashing noise; sounding like a trash can had been tipped over. You quickly slowed yourself down and landed on the corner of a nearby building to get your bearings, moving around quickly to try and figure out exactly where the noise was.  
  
"Hey hey! Careful where you're moving O'Hirn! You keep knocking over trash cans and someone's bound to notice us back here..."  
  
Oh there was no way. You couldn't help but give an amused chortle under your mask as you moved to look down the edge of a building; sure enough; Alex O'Hirn and Flint Marko were down the alley, a side entrance to... huh, a jewelry store, how about that? Anyway, the side entrance had been busted open by, if you had to guess, the crowbar in Flint's hand. Alex had his arms positively full of bags filled with jewelry, presumably, while Flint kept one bag hefted over his shoulder.  
  
"Sorry Flint; it's so icy out! Can't keep my footin' in this stupid weather." Alex complained bitterly as Marko just rolled his eyes.  
  
"Would you stop bitchin' about it like that, O'Hirn? If it weren't for this weather this little shop wouldn't be as free and clear for us to rob! I mean, Heck, who's gonna be out checking around places like this when Manhattan's pretty much snowed-in 24/7, right?" Marko laughed at that, O'Hirn chuckling in agreement.  
  
"Yeah, real smart idea you had there. Don't know why I didn't think'a it."  
  
"Like I've said all along O'Hirn, you just gotta leave the planning to me. We'd get our big score eventually!"  
  
Oh these poor, poor crooks. You almost felt bad about raining on their parade.  
  
Good thing it was snowing!

You grinned under your mask as you slowly crawled down the side of the wall, the howl of the wind covering any noise you were making and the blizzard itself leaving you pretty hard to spot. This meant that even as you got closer and closer into range that O'Hirn and Marko were oblivious the entire time. Before they could even think to start their get away under these circumstances, however, you finally let your presence be known... by shooting Webbing at both of their feet and sweeping them off of them before yanking them up off the ground.  
  
"Well if it isn't my favorite dastardly duo of deviant dummies. Sorry to snow on your parade but I'm afraid that you two need to learn to read the signs; store's closed."  
  
"OH COME ON! YOU AGAIN!" Flint cried out in frustration as you chuckled, firing off another couple Weblines in order to tangle up one arm for each of them.  
  
"Yeah, me again. So hey, you two mind I ask a question? Do you have a really good lawyer or are you guys just too stupid for the law to prosecute? Asking in case I ever need to be let off the hook." In truth you knew that goons like these had a pretty easy time of getting off with no time and only some light bail; New York just kind of ran that way in order to keep too many people from ending up in prison. Sure it meant repeat offenses like this but, hey, sooner or later these two jokers would have to run out their luck on their bail, right?  
  
"HEY! We ain't too stupid for the law to prose... purse... to get us! We just don't get to do anything fun because you keep messin' with us!" Alex cried out even as Flint managed to snap one of your Webs, a pretty impressive feat if you did say so yourself.  
  
"If that's the case then you two really need to just go ahead and save yourselves the embarrassment and surrender." You remarked as you grabbed at Flint's other arm with a Webline and successfully hogtied Alex with a few of them, leaving him hanging by the wall as you went to secure Marko. "I mean, come on, we all know how this song and dance goes by now, right?" As you finished up making sure there was no way these two were tearing their ways out of the Weblines you secured them both to the wall and jumped down, standing just below them as you started Webbing them up good and secure... and in a thick enough layer to help keep them warm until the police arrived.  
  
Alex O'Hirn's face was practically throbbing with how red it was... though if that was because of the blood or how angry he was it was hard to say.  
  
"Oh you think you're so funny! Acting like some hot shot just cause you got some powers!" Okay he was just pissed. Good to know. "You wouldn't be laughing like that, not if we was the ones who had them powers! If I did I'd crush you like a bug, ya creep!" Alex struggled in the Webbing as he seemed to try and take a swing at you but the motion was... well... wasted in that big old ball of Webbing he was stuck in.  
  
It was kind of adorable; like a kid wrapped up too tight in a blanket.

"Actually, going to have to correct you on that one O'Hirn." You said with a grin underneath your mask as you finished Webbing these two crooks up, giving them a spin so that O'Hirn was facing you. "I did fight a guy with superpowers not too long ago and, let me tell you, that did not stop me from making fun of him." Heck, making light of the situation had helped to push you past the weirdness of fighting Max in the first place. "Besides, you don't _really_ want powers like mine. You really should try to be more creative, after all! Find something that'd suit you... I dunno, like maybe a big club." You chuckled as you turned to walk away from the duo, Marko obviously looking just 100% done with this situation while O'Hirn continued to struggle.  
  
"You keep laughing creep! One of these days I'm gonna pound you into the concrete!" You shrugged at that and, feeling a little cheeky, you once again turned to shoot him a couple finger guns.  
  
"Tell you what O'Hirn; think about what kind of supervillain you want to be and then when you inevitably try to rob someone, again, and I'm out here to stop you, _again,_ then we can workshop ideas for your alias!" You couldn't help but chuckle as Alex started to thrash about, thrashing that only ended when Flint bonked the back of Alex's head with his own.  
  
"Would you just shut up already O'Hirn, bad enough I got the blood rushing to my head with you screaming right next to my ear." You chuckled and fired off a Webline, swinging away to leave these two at it while you send the go ahead for Ned to call the cops. Were you perhaps tempting fate with all those jokes? Especially that last one... yeah, probably. But you know, meh, what's the w-  
  
NO! Even you weren't about to tempt fate by going that far.  
  
So you just shrugged it off and, with a loud cheer, really started to enjoy your wild ride through New York City again.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

"You sure you're alright out there, sonny?"  
  
"Y-Y-Yeah! T-Totally fine, sir!" You said through clenching, chattering teeth as you did your best to shake off the cold and keep right on shoveling.  
  
"Well alright then! Come on in when you're done! The Mrs. has made ya some hot tea and we're watching the Wheel of Fortune! Feel free to warm back up when you're done! Thanks for yer help; son couldn't make it this weekend to shovel out the snow!" You glanced around at the driveway that still had literal feet of snow on nearly half of it; yeah, clearly. That wasn't much of a surprise though; no doubt a lot of people were being caught up by the weather and being left unable to actually make it to their destinations.  
  
"T-T-Thank you sir!" You shouted back as he nodded and closed the door, leaving you to shiver a bit more as you kept right on shoveling the snow...  
  
Hopefully you wouldn't be _too cold_ before you went back home to do your lesson with Uncle Ben.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

As you entered your room with a slight yawn, stretching out your back and rubbing at your eyes you quickly walked over to your computer and hit a few strokes on the keyboard. You needed to check your school mail before everything properly started just in case some news hit about a sudden cancellation, as unlikely as that was. As you undressed and put everything away, including your Spider-Man gear, you found an email, asking for an immediate reply, attached...  
  
Oh.  
  
It was the Elective Survey. About time, you supposed. You yawned again as you pulled up the survey and took a closer look which... well, not exactly fantastic. One of your choices for the month ended up being eaten up... and not by Phys Ed, this time. Seems like this semester they weren't going to stick you all in a gym for this semester which was... you know, nice you guess. Sure it meant you wouldn't have a free period but then, hey, if you got an actual class out of it that would be fine...  
  
It was the class eating up Phys Ed. that got you to raise an eyebrow; 'Health Class: Your Body and You'.  
  
...  
  
Putting that right to the side, in all reality, that did basically mean you were pretty much locked in to only one choice, given that your science classes pretty much mandated you have a lab attached to it. Considering you took Shop last semester you wouldn't be given access to it again this semester because you couldn't get credit for it twice. Which produced for you a pretty interesting list when it came to your classes.


	50. Clint Barton

"Alright Uncle Ben, I think I can make it the rest of the way!"  
  
"You sure there kiddo? Snow looks pretty deep. Might be a pain for you to walk the rest of the way." You looked out the truck's window once more as you wiped away some fog from the window. Uncle Ben was right, of course; the snow around the campus of Midtown High looked like it could easily clear a foot or two; seems like during the long break Midtown didn't exactly keep up with a lot of the snow cleaning duties. Probably figured the snow wouldn't be so bad or that it would clear up somewhat by the time everybody got back. Seems like the Polar Vortex really knocked folks for a loop.  
  
For normal you it would have indeed been a huge pain to trudge through. For Superhero you it would be fine, even if you had to fake some difficulty. For you, however, what was more important was seeing what else was around the truck; cars getting stuck, people having to slow down in a long line as everybody tried to get as close to the school as possible. Forcing Uncle Ben to wait till he was basically right in front of the campus meant essentially forcing him to waste a lot of time sitting around waiting for other people to get out or to get unstuck from the snow. Uncle Ben had to get to work too, no matter what kind of excuse he might've been able to give. So you just shrugged and gave him a small smile.  
  
"It'll be fine Uncle Ben, I promise. You just go ahead and get on out of here before traffic gets too bad." Your uncle frowned slightly but, hey, Ben Parker was a practical man too and as he looked at the forming kerfuffle in front of the school he just gave a short huff of a breath as you popped open the car door and slid on out.  
  
"I'll be back for ya at the end of the school day. You stay inside and keep warm till you see my truck again, alright Peter?" Uncle Ben said, somewhat firmly, as you nodded and waved.  
  
"Absolutely Uncle Ben, have a good day at work!" Ben, seeing you understood, smiled and waved back.  
  
"Have a good day at school, Peter." You closed the door behind you as Uncle Ben immediately started driving off, the snow chains on his tired rattling as he got a move on. You heaved a small sigh and nodded as you started trudging your way through the snow, lifting your feet up and over the snow as you tried to take steps in the small pits where people had already walked through. This was gonna be a pain to get through even with powers. As you thought this though, from nearby, you heard a small knock on glass. Perking up and glancing over a ways you saw the source; none other than Flash Thompson knocking on the glass of some small, compact car, the window unrolling to reveal... oh hey, Liz!  
  
"Flash!" Liz called out, a smile on her face as you could see a wide grin on Flash's.  
  
"Well hey there Liz. Seems like you two are having a little trouble." Liz nodded, her mother clearly behind the wheel as the young woman shook her head.  
  
"We're trying to get through all this traffic but everybody's either getting stuck or clumping up too tight. Can't believe they're making us come out here in this." Liz remarked as Flash gave a grin.  
  
"Well you're in luck; Flash Thompson Roadside Service can escort you through this crap for a pittance. Your mom can go ahead and just speed on out of here if she wants." You see Liz smile a bit, chuckling behind her hand as she looked back at her mother. The talk went on behind the scenes before, quickly, the car door opened. Liz slipped on her backpack as she reached her arms out while Flash quickly turned around and offered up his hands. Two hooked legs and a heft later and Liz was riding on the QB's back as he charged through the snow, years of tire drills probably helping him blitz straight through the snow.  
  
"Everybody steer clear, I can't stop this crazy thing!" Liz Allen called out, laughing slightly as Flash moved as fast as he could in the weather.  
  
"Move it Parker!" You snapped out of your daze and jumped out of the way as Flash charged on by, Liz giving a quick wave and a 'Hi Peter' before laughing as she and Flash continued to blitz their way to the front of the school. You heaved a sigh; you actually felt envious of Liz for a moment.  
  
...  
  
Well not too envious. You went ahead and kept on trudging through the slow as you did your best to not make a scene yourself. When you eventually got your way to the school, cheating and using a bit of those Spider Powers here and there, you saw that Flash had long grouped back up with a few of his guy friends, Liz dusting herself off and shaking off the folds in her cloths as she turned to see you approach.  
  
"Hey there Peter! Saw you on the way in; did you hear me say hi?"

"Heh, yeah, I heard." You commented idly, scratching at the nape of your neck as you shrugged your shoulders. "Was a bit distracted at the moment though, admittedly. Didn't get much of a chance to say hi back when I was trying to avoid getting run over." Liz chuckled warmly at that, doing her best to hide it behind her hand as she did so.  
  
"Sorry about that. Think Flash might get a few too many flashbacks to football season whenever he's doing something like that. He didn't actually come close to running you over, did he?" You considered it for a moment before shrugging.  
  
"Eh, I had time to get out of the way. Plus I was just kind of distracted and gormlessly staring." You gave a quick smile as you nodded back to the front of the school. "You know, was just a bit jealous of that premium service you got to yourself. Think Flash might be willing to give a ride with a 'neighbor' discount?" You joked as Liz laughed, the two of you walking to the front of the school as she shook her head slightly.  
  
"Sadly I don't think Flash would hand out rides like that to anyone but me; kind of a perk, you know."  
  
"Oh man, such blatant favoritism. I don't know how his taxi service is going to expand if people see that kind of blatant market manipulation on his part." Liz nodded her head, still chortling, as you adjusted your bag a bit.  
  
"Maybe so but, hey, works for me." You couldn't help but give a small grin at that yourself as Liz turned around and looked forward at the school. "I think most of them are probably going to be waiting for me inside; I asked for a little bit of time to hang out here given that I didn't catch you saying hi back when Flash ran by. So we can hang out here a bit to chat and catch up in person rather than over the phone."  
  
"Sounds good; I'll want to warm up eventually myself but I get it; even ignoring Flash charging by I'm probably still not his, or their, favorite person." You remarked as Liz looked back with an apologetic look.  
  
"If it's any consolation Flash knows we're talking."  
  
...  
  
"Whether that's consolation or not entirely depends on how Flash reacted to that bit of knowledge." You say, your skin turning sheet white at that revelation. Liz laughed and shook her head, raising a hand to wave you back down.  
  
"Sorry, should've kept going. It's fine; he just said to hurry so we can keep hanging out today. He wasn't upset or anything; after all you did both of us kind of a huge favor." You heaved a sigh of relief at that; so it did seem like you were doing your best to help, even if it was Spider-Man who got the credit in the end, and did pay you back dividends. That was good, that was real good. That meant at least you didn't have to worry about Flash hazing you over all of this.  
  
"Well that's good; wouldn't want to worry about Flash thinking I was trying anything funny and beating the snot out of me or anything." You remarked, a phrase that drew a surprising amount of laughter from Liz as she looked at you with an amused smile.  
  
"Peter, were you worried that Flash was going to bully you thinking you were going to try to 'steal his girl' or something?"  
  
"The thought had occurred to me, yeah." Liz burst into further laughter, causing you to blink in surprise as she raised up two fingers.  
  
"So two things Peter. First off, Flash would only need to feel that way if he thought he had a reason to. Flash can be rough with people sometimes but let me tell you, he doesn't want for confidence." That's... okay yeah, fair. It wasn't like you were much of a threat compared to Flash Thompson all things considered once you took the Spider Powers away, especially in a dating world. "Two is that Flash knows me and he knows that if I thought you were that type of person we wouldn't be talking in the first place."  
  
Ouch.  
  
"Good point." You remarked as Liz shrugged, more amused by the entire affair than anything. Those would be two very good reasons to not feel threatened, after all. "Sorry just, you know."  
  
"I get it, I get it. It's why I told Flash that we were talking in the first place. Honesty is just good policy there and, you know, things aren't ever going to get to a point where that whole... you know, point you made a while back is going to get better if Flash isn't at least aware." Ah, right, that little accidental retort you threw back at her over the way you could be treated. It was nice that Liz had that in mind at least.

"Really, and I know this is going to sound a little silly so stay with me," You cautioned as Liz just chuckled and waved you on, "-it's just that I don't really know Flash anymore." Liz raised an eyebrow at that as she looked on over.  
  
"I mean I guess you guys don't exactly hang but it's not like Flash is much of an introvert." You nodded at that before rolling on with your point.  
  
"It's why I said I know how it was going to sound. Yeah, Flash puts himself out there a lot and, yeah, the dude isn't exactly super complicated but... well, even then I only really see one side of him most of the time. We don't hang out anymore so I don't know him 'well' anymore. It leaves me to draw conclusions based on what I do see of him and, admittedly, they're pretty silly in hindsight but... you know." You shrugged again as Liz gave a short sigh, nodding her head in understanding.  
  
"Yeah, I see what you're saying. You can't exactly get a better picture of Flash if you two don't really talk that much... or if he's too busy being aggressive with the rest of the guys." You nodded at that as Liz tapped her chin. "Well, there's not much to be done to fix that other than you two actually sitting down and hashing it out... which is probably easier said than done." Liz admitted as you put your hands on your hips.  
  
"Probably?" You said with a chuckle as Liz rolled her eyes.  
  
"Okay okay, really hard, especially considering the whole school thing." You nodded at that; the pressures of school, of cliques and the like really did put a lot of expectations on everyone. That was even putting to the side that Flash really did seem to like to mess with people. "Tell you what... if you do ever want to try, I promise I'll try my best to make sure he knows to behave. Sound good?" You saw the look on her face and, not wanting to shoot her down outright, just kind of shrugged with an amused look.  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"I'll take a maybe." Liz said with a laugh as she checked her phone. "Think I need to get moving. Talk to you later, Peter!"  
  
"Talk to you later, Liz." You waved after Liz as she ran off, shivering a bit as a particularly harsh wind blew across your skin. Yep, time to get back inside...

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You heaved a small sigh of relief as you walked into Midtown proper, shaking out your hair as bits of snow and water sprinkled about. Being inside the properly heated building was a good deal of relief, even if you were thoroughly covered head-to-toe in winter wear. The Polar Vortex was just that cold and that much of a pain, even for someone with Superhuman capabilities such as yourself. As you continued to do your best to dry yourself off you tried to keep an eye open for your other friends or acquaintances. Ned would be cool to see, of course, but you were also really keen on meeting up with folks you hadn't seen that much in person over Winter Break, like Gwen or Harry. Your eyes scanned the hallways as you walked on before, finally, you noticed Harry. The young man you'd been talking to over the web had been sat on a school bench, a bunch of his stuff sat at the side as he tried his best to dry off some of his stuff. Seems like even with a personal ride Harry, too, had to walk into the school like everyone else.  
  
"Hey there Harry!" You called out quickly, waving slightly in order to get the red head's attention. The young man's head shifted around a few times as he looked for the source of your voice but then found you and, with a polite smile, waved back as he stood up, slipping back on his shoes with a slightly wet squelch as he prepared to move over and meet you.  
  
"Yo, Osborn!" You both paused for a moment as the baritone voice of one Randy Robertson. The young athlete, and the whole group of the popular football players from your year, like Kong and Flash, as well as some of their girlfriends, stood off to the side as they seemed to just notice Harry as well. "Haven't seen ya all break, how you been man?" You see Harry open his mouth for a moment, though it was hard to say if any noise came out given how far away you were. You both glanced back at each other after a moment and, well, the calculations seemed to go by quickly enough in Harry's head. The young man raised a finger, gesturing and mouthing for you to please wait a few seconds, before turning back to the large group.  
  
"Yo Randy! Hey there Flash! You know how it is; dad dragged me to a whole bunch of parties across the city. Boring stuff but, hey, interesting people!" Harry called out as he jogged over to the group of students like an eager puppy. Well... not unexpected you guess. Harry was friends, or you guess made the effort to be friends, with these guys for a lot longer than you. He'd probably want to go say hi to them first. Still, oof, you had to admit that was a bit of a hit to the ego.

You heaved a small sigh as you leaned up against a nearby wall and waited, clapping your hands together and just taking a small breath as you tried to look as casual as possible. Look, Harry motioned that it'd just take a bit and, at this point, you didn't exactly have much reason to not believe him. It probably wouldn't take too, too long and you'd already had breakfast at home so you were missing out on pretty much nothing as it concerned this whole ordeal. Just waiting a few minutes for Harry to be done talking with the more popular kids would be no skin off your nose.  
  
Plus, like you said, it wasn't even that this was exactly unexpected. As long as you'd heard about him and seen him in the halls Harry had been doing his best to hang out with these guys. He wanted to be popular and... yeah, that wasn't exactly a completely mystifying desire. Especially for someone who probably very well should be hanging out with these types of people. He was an Osborn, the richest kid the entire school. Heck, it was probably practically expected of him in some way; that's just what rich people did, right? So giving him some time to sort some stuff out with the popular kids was just the thing to do here; you would've come off as pushy if you didn't, you bet, you would've really put Harry into a bind by directly forcing him to pick between hanging out with you and the popular kids...  
  
And to be frank it's a game of chicken you would've lost hard, you think. You've been friends with Harry for a few weeks now... heck, were you even friends with Harry? Your contact had been so casual and light in the form of emails and messages for the most part that it was kind of hard to get a grasp on. Either way, point was, Harry and you were by far from set thing as far as friendships go. If this was Ned you probably would've been way more hurt... in fact you could nix 'probably' and just outright say you would've felt extremely hurt if Ned dumped you for the popular kids, even if it was only for a bit (which, you know, kind of silly but hey). Harry probably felt similarly casual.  
  
The popular kids on the other hand were Harry's goal and had been, quite obviously, for a good long while. If you forced him to choose between yourself and them considering how you two probably qualified as just acquaintances then, yeah, you were going to lose that one. So yeah, best to just sit this one out and wait for Harry to finish. You did your best to keep your eyes casually flitting about, trying not to look in their direction too often, as Harry casually yucked it up with the popular kids and just chatted away with them. You heard about some plans they were setting up for after the Polar Vortex, seems like ideas for little getaways or hangouts were definitely on once the weather wasn't awful and then, a few minutes later, they broke off and Harry was left alone, waving goodbye. After a few moments passed for the popular kids to wander off you saw Harry turn on his heels, wave back at you, somewhat awkwardly admittedly, and then watched him speed walk his way back to you.  
  
You waved back, of course, watching with interest as Harry rushed up with a slightly nervous expression.  
  
"Haha... sorry about that. The guys and gals over there just wanted to talk about a few things. We'd had some, like, big plans for after the break to go out and do some stuff but, you know, the Vortex. So they wanted to catch up and see if I was still on to help springboard for that stuff. You know how... okay well, maybe you don't know how it is but..." Harry seemed to cough into his fist at that. "Uh... so, uh... sorry about that. Good to see you in person again?"

You decide to end Harry's seeming internal struggle by grinning and offering your hand out to shake his. There wasn't much point in letting him squirm; you weren't even upset, not really. It's not like you didn't understand the situation well enough.  
  
"It's good to see you too man, been too long." You said with a grin as Harry visibly relaxed, releasing a small breath he'd been holding as he reached out to shake your hand.  
  
"Yeah, it has been. Sorry to put us meeting back up on hold like that. The other guys were calling me and, ya know, it's been pretty much as long since I've seen them so, you know." You nodded again at that, letting go of his hand before it got awkward so you could give a short shrug.  
  
"Yeah man I getcha. It's cool; they were your friends way before you and I even spoke a single word to each other, so I figured you'd want to say hi to them first." Even if that had much more to do with social class and the structure of social circles in high school, there was weight to that. You watched for a moment as a look of surprise came over Harry's face at what you said... before a confident grin worked its way onto it and he nodded.  
  
"Yeah. Yeah, they're my friends. I'm glad you understand dude. I'll try my best to not make that kind of stuff so awkward in the future. Kind of cold to leave you hanging like that." Despite the pause you nodded your head with a grin as the both of you started walking and talking. You had to admit, this was the first time your attempt at making new friends really rubbed up against the hard reality of society. There were ways things worked; sure, Gwen couldn't always talk to you because she was hanging out with her band sometimes, but that had less to do with different cliques and more just a matter of time and having other friends.  
  
Ned was in your own circle so it was pretty easy to almost constantly get in touch with him, but guys like Harry were on this whole different level and, yeah, it showed from time to time. Guess part of life was just learning to navigate stuff like that.  
  
Which, hey, wouldn't be the hardest or most dangerous thing you'd have to work around these days, right?

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
You swung through the air with a great deal of speed, curving through Brooklyn's buildings as you raggedly breathed out rough, cold breaths. Brooklyn was a bit more tightly packed than Queens and had a handful of taller buildings more than the more suburban of New York's five boroughs. Not only was it just flat out better ground for swinging around on a Webline, it was more preferable in this kind of weather. Who would've thought that several feet of snow on the rooftops on buildings would've made parkour hazardous to your health?  
  
...  
  
The sarcasm was more to help blunt the hit to your ego from the fact that you'd nearly slipped and slammed your head into the rough stone of one of the buildings you tried to land on earlier today. This Polar Vortex was a real hassle not just in your normal civilian life but also to Spider-Man, it seemed like. Still, you had to get out there and patrol, even in the most disagreeable weather. Ned could only really call in every now and then with news given how quiet the police were being due to the closures in various routes and that meant that you didn't have as clear a picture where the crime was. So you had to open your net and keep your eyes peeled through the smoke and the fog and the smoke of the city in the midst of this terrible blizzard.  
  
Eventually you decided you needed a quick break; you swung up and around and landed on the side of a building and immediately stuck to it with your Wall Crawling abilities. You shivered a little as you leaned up and back against the building, doing your best to use it to shield you from the winds as you took a small breather. Alright, good chunk of Brooklyn patrolled in just a few hours. If you kept this up and still didn't see any crime then that seemed like it'd be a good time to call it a day.  
  
"'Scuse me sir... looks like you're having trouble with your bags there. Maybe we could help you out there..."  
  
...  
  
As friendly as that sentence could sound you couldn't help but feel like it was more intimidating than friendly. Both because of the way it was being said and by who it was being said... namely a couple of goons in big, thick coats with wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses as they approached some dude walking down the street a little ways underneath you. You raised an eyebrow as the guy turned to look at them with an appraising look, raising the hood of his thick, purple winter coat to get a better look at them. A mess of short cut blonde hair stuck out from where you were hanging as the light skinned man looked them both over.  
  
He didn't seem terribly impressed.  
  
"Oh, hey there fellas." The man said, hefting two grocery bags he had hooked under one of his arms as he sighed. "Think I actually got a good hold on these bags here. Not that far off from home either; the Mrs. is pretty keen on getting these groceries back without me dawdling too. Don't think she'd care much for the company either.. no offense. You both just seem like the type who wouldn't wipe their feet on the carpet." The man said with a shrug as he looked at them. "So while I appreciate the offer I'm afraid I'm gonna have to say that it'd be better for everyone if you just walked away." The man said, plainly. You had to give the guy props; he was definitely cool under pressure given the fact that he was being approached by two thugs...  
  
Though being so cool under pressure started to look a lot more like carelessness from your perspective when he maintained that cool even as the two goons pulled... some pretty well maintained and solid looking pistols, actually. Heck, they practically looked brand new.  
  
"We're going to have to insist." One of them said, his accent thick, as the blonde man just heaved a sigh and shook his head.  
  
"I was afraid so." He said as you slowly but surely tensed up.  
  
Yeah, so were you... but these two clowns would learn their lesson the hard way soon as you got the jump on them.

You take a small breath and lean yourself forward off the side of the building before, with a great flip, you jump off and start falling down. You can't be sure of what exactly gave you away as you dived on down to the ground, the wind whipping around you as you moved about as silently as you reasonably thought you could... but somehow all three of these guys ended up looking up almost immediately once you made your move. Ouch, so much for stealth. Ah well, you were still way faster than these guys could hope to be so... wing it!  
  
"Ah, if it isn't my arch-nemesis... _the grocery bandits."_ You landed on the snowy ground in between the would be mark and the two bandits, the two men jumping in surprise and turning their guns on you as you just took careful aim. "Or should I say the grocery fancy-men... seriously, you guys got all dressed up to knock some guy over for groceries? What? Fancying a night on the town after this or something?" You remarked as you fired off both Web Shooters. To one of their credit they actually managed to pull their piece back in time to avoid it getting tagged... the other guy not so much. Your Webbing hit, he panicked and then with one quick pull you managed to just yoink that gun out of his hands, sending it flying behind you.  
  
"Then again maybe I'm reading the room wrong and you guys are helping with his groceries... boy, some friends, huh? I'd hate to see what you bring to help move a couch; maybe a rocket launcher?" The two would be robbers tensed up, the other guy taking careful aim with his gun as you just narrowed your gaze. Time for you to impress this crowd by-  
  
 ***BANG***  
  
Your eyes went wide under your mask, bringing your mask's eyes wide open with them, as with one shot fired the gun in the remaining tough's hand was bounced out, his thumb bleeding from the ricochet as he immediately dropped the gun in reflex, crying out in pain. You glanced back behind you and, holy shit, the guy had caught the gun you'd thrown away and _shot the other guy's gun away._ That was so cool!  
  
 ***BANG**BANG***  
  
And... that was less cool; the guy's knees spurting blood out of their back as two more bullets sank into them, causing him to collapse backwards into the snow with a cry of pain before passing out. Okay so dude behind you was obviously a green beret or something like that. Noted. You quickly turned to look at the other guy, disarmed and facing down his target who was apparently _very slick_ with a gun and you, the spider-themed superhero.  
  
You weren't surprised when he started running. With one last bit of Webbing you fired off a line that caught his back and started wrangling this poor guy back in while their would be target kept his gun trained on him to make sure he didn't try anything. Honestly if it meant he wouldn't break any of your Webbing while you secured him then you were grateful for the help... and kind of grateful that he'd stopped shooting, considering how amazingly accurate he'd been. As soon as you'd gotten that done you'd turned on the guy in the purple coat, now getting a better look at him. A pair of dark-tinted glasses hanged low on his neck; you could see that now that you were so up close. You would say sunglasses but considering the weather it was way more likely he had been using them to prevent the glare from the snow from getting in his eyes. He wasn't as pale as he looked through all the snow, though undeniably the dude was pretty fair skinned.  
  
Combine that with the much more obvious blonde hair and blue eyes and boy if only this guy was much taller he'd be a dead ringer for that villain from Rocky 4. Even kind of had his hair done up a bit, though clearly the snow had gone a long way to wetting it and flattening it out. Almost as soon as the threat had passed the guy's demeanor shifted. It had been stiff, professional and downright dangerous before when he'd gotten a hold of that gun, shifting away from the attempt at calming things down earlier. Now though with no one pointing a gun at him and all things, essentially, being in the clear... you were kind of surprised to see this guy sigh in relief and drop the gun.  
  
"Woof. Close one." The guy said, shaking his head out as he took another breath. "Hey kid, thanks a lot. Not sure exactly how long they were tailing me in weather like this but, boy, it must've been for a while for them to pick the best time for this. Doesn't really matter how much army training you got if you're caught with your pants down..." The guy licked his lip, nodding his head to the side to where the bags of groceries still lay discarded; he must've dropped them in order to catch the gun and [started blasting](https://en.meming.world/images/en/thumb/9/95/So_Anyway%2C_I_Started_Blasting.jpg/300px-So_Anyway%2C_I_Started_Blasting.jpg). "You know, metaphorically speaking. You get what I mean." You nodded at that, taking a small breath and...  
  
...  
  
Hey what a minute. Was this the first time aside from [Anna May](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/page-224#post-55763650) that you'd gotten thanked for doing your job?  
  
...  
  
Holy smokes you think it was!  
  
Okay, sure, it was for literally saving some guy at gunpoint but, hey, progress!

"Uh, hey, it's no problem!" You say, taking a moment to collect yourself as you shake off the feeling of glee of being thanked again. "I just wish I could count this as volunteer work for college, given how much of it I'm doing these days." You remarked glibly, the man himself giving a small grin as he shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Eh, you ask me they don't know what they're missin'. Plus I've heard college is overrated anyway." The man responded, causing you to raise an eyebrow under your mask.  
  
"Oh yeah, who'd you hear that from?" You asked as a slight smirk formed on the man's lips.

  
"Oh I say it all the time whenever my wife complains about paying back her student loans." You can't help it; you chortle a bit under the mask. The man himself looks over the two goons which, as he does so, gets you to jump into gear. You quickly moved over to the guy currently bleeding from the kneecaps, the sight and smell of blood causing you to wince a bit as you take a good look over him. Alright, nothing seemed to be seriously shattered, though obviously he wasn't going to be walking okay for a while on these knees. Blood vessels were ruptured but none of the big ones so he wasn't in threat of bleeding to death. Good, good, all good news. You quickly started firing off strands of Webbing to try and staunch the bleeding but...  
  
Man oh man, is it awkward. It's like trying to bandage someone by trying to tie lengths of rope around the wound. Sure eventually you're able to apply enough pressure with the Webbing to do so but it ain't as simple as it could be with bandages or something that didn't come out like your Webbing did. You got it done but, woof, it didn't look great.  
  
"Clint, by the way. Just in case you were wondering." The man said, nodding his head your way as you went about your work.  
  
"Oh, nice to meet you, uh, Clint." Clint, like the actor huh? You had to admit, you didn't expect to hear that kind of name in your lifetime from another person. "Not sure if you've heard of me, kind of a big deal around here, but the name's Spider-Man." Clint gave another smile as he shrugged.  
  
"Ah yeah, trust me, I've heard of you. News has been keeping as close an eye on you as they can for a bit, not to mention your big showing in Manhattan... twice now, I guess." Clint rubbed his nose as you nodded.  
  
"Yeah. Anyway, sorry for nosing in Clint but, uh, any idea why these guys were after you? Not for nothing but, you know, it's pretty clear these guys weren't just interested in whatever you had in those bags." The evidence that this was a hit was so overwhelming that you didn't even feel like talking around it. Clint nodded at that, shoving his hands in his pockets as he shrugged.  
  
"What can I say; my job in the military meant that I went to a lot of interesting places, got to meet a lot of interesting people and... you know, killed a good chunk of them." You winced at that; he wasn't exactly comfortable with admitting that to you, probably because of your apparent age, but he did so anyway as he took a quick breath in through his nose, wincing at the cold. "Not sure how much you know about some of the hot spots folks like us in the military get sent to but the people there aren't always friendly and aren't always willing to let bygones be bygones." You nodded at that.  
  
"Yeah, I figured as much." You commented idly as you rubbed the back of your neck. "Listen... I probably shouldn't pry but... well, the last military guy I knew of that got targeted like this didn't exactly get a happy ending." Flashes of the stories you read about Frank Castle, about how his family was gunned down and how he barely survived flashed through your mind... as well as the mental image of the man himself and how he'd turned out. "So, you know, you and the... er, 'Misses' might want to skip town." You see him sigh, rubbing a hand through his blond hair as he nodded.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. We'd been talking about that before, ya know? Course before today the topic of conversation would've centered around it getting a bit expensive to live here; been looking at movin' somewhere else more affordable you know? New York not exactly being a safe place to raise our kids came up of course but, you know..." Clint kicked the guy who was just tied up, causing him to groan. "Didn't exactly think about this kind of stuff. Figured it'd be kind of a hard to find nobody in a city this big but... well, ya live and ya learn, right?" Clint shrugged his shoulders at that as he nodded your way.

"Y-Yeah, live and learn..."  
  
Maybe an unknowingly poor choice of words in this situation but, hey, they were out there now. As Clint finished gathering up his groceries he heaved a sigh, bringing up a hand to pull his hood back over his head as he turned to you.  
  
"Well kid, thanks for the help. Really appreciate the save. Been seeing you do a lot of dangerous stuff but... you know, keep your eyes peeled and stay safe. Kids like your age shouldn't do stuff like this but... fuck, I'm not gonna complain or be the one to tell you to stop." Clint laughed, as if in on some joke you yourself didn't quite understand, as he gave you a nod. "I'll stick around and wait for the police to show up and take these two goons away. That way you can mosey on along before they end up taking notice. Take it easy, Spider-Man." You nodded at that, giving Clint a short wave.  
  
"Take it easy, Clint..." You said, firing off a Webline as you got ready to swing away from the scene, leaving the two would be killers to Clint... before you paused. Well, better to know than to not know, right? "Hey, just a quick question... you wouldn't happen to have any connection to a man named Frank Castle would you?" It was probably a dead end but, hey, better to cover your bases than not. Clint hummed to himself, thinking hard as he furrowed his brow.  
  
"Frank Castle... no... don't think I've ever met anyone with that name. If I did I think I'd remember; that's one of those names you don't forget." You nodded at that.  
  
"Right, just figured I'd check in. Again, take it easy." With that you did indeed jump away, feeling Clint's eyes follow you as you swung off before, eventually, he disappeared into the blizzard.  
  
Pretty nice guy, all things considered! Plus he even said thanks! Things were looking up for the Spider-Man, it looked like!

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
Even under ordinary circumstances, designing something like this would be a hassle for the average person. Really, do it yourself projects, much as they sold themselves on how simple they were to put together and how cost effective their parts were, ended up often being more complicated to put together than even standard machinery bought from the store. Because these projects often involved jury-rigging parts together that weren't normally supposed to work the way you were putting them to work to, a great deal of care and attention needed to be put into making sure they'd actually function and not, you know, blow up in your face.  
  
The latter of which wasn't exactly impossible with a vacuum-sealed chamber, when you thought about it. So as you sketched out your blueprint, using your laptop to do some drawings in paint as best you could, you were cognizant of how rough this would be...  
  
Especially considering you were deviating from the core blueprint you'd 'gotten' from the DIY page itself. Yeah, it was good for a general vacuum chamber but... well, just looking at it you could tell that it wasn't designed with something like your Web Fluid in mind. Stuff that, without exposure to air, could still be sticky but mostly liquid, could slip into just about anything. The fact that even when a little air was exposed it'd harden and expand out a bit, giving it its signature tensile strength, meant that the retrieval mechanism you'd have to build in would have to be airtight, lest you essentially ruin the batch in the attempt to get it out of the chamber.  
  
Not to mention the chamber itself had to be built so that the pressure wouldn't combust the fluid or wouldn't let it slip into any and all crevices and potentially tear it up from the inside through erosion. Sure, it was bound to wear down and need new parts in time, like all machines, but the more careful you were in your design now the longer you could put that off...  
  
With a quick flick of your wrist and a slam on the 'save' key you smiled at your concept. Just from your perspective it looked good, real good. Something you were pretty confident moving forward with. Now you just had to hope the blueprint would work out. Always that chance that there was something you were missing...  
  
But with how much of your allowance the Web Fluid was eating up, it was worth the risk in order to lower your production costs. Being a superhero could be a drain on your money, who knew?


	51. Outtake 9: Road Trip!

A black SUV slowly but surely drove up the road to the crossing point. A lonely wind blew dust and debris across the road as the car pulled up to the checkpoint, one of the many official crossing points by road between the United States and Mexico. As they crossed into the station, the sun obscured by the roof, the SUV was stopped as a border patrol agent approached. A family of three, it looked like; a man, a woman and their daughter. It was a routine check up; checking passports to ensure that these two were, indeed, American citizens returning from the other side of the border, a check of their trunk to ensure that nothing had been hidden amidst the luggage, declarations that they weren't bringing any contraband back and, finally, a check in the tire compartment.  
  
With the SUV cleared the agent had been more than happy to let the couple and their daughter cross, well assured that the van wasn't taking anything illegal into the country. As the vehicle drove off into the distance the family lounged about, feeling slightly melancholy about the end of their vacation but, nonetheless, looking forward to getting back home.  
  
"Mom, can I get my DS out from the bag now? You said I could once we got back stateside." The little girl kicked her feet slightly as she whined, her mother sighing as she rolled her eyes.  
  
"I did. You sure you wouldn't want to keep looking, dear? Just because it isn't a foreign country doesn't mean there isn't still-"  
  
"I'd like my DS, yes." A slight sigh escaped the mothers lips; honestly, what had changed between when she was a little girl and now? When her parents had taken her on a big old road trip she could barely keep her eyes off the road and scenery. Now all her own daughter wanted to do was glue them to a screen...  
  
God.  
  
She was sounding more and more like her mother.  
  
"You know, sure dear, I said you could. Have fun." The parents gave each other a glance, the woman heaving a rough sigh at seeing her husband's amused expression. "Not a word out of you." The man just chuckled before turning his gaze back on the road, her daughter having leaned over the back seat to pick through the bags for her gaming device when-  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! MOMMY, THERE'S A BODY IN THE BAG!" Immediately the van was brought to a full stop, foot slammed on the brakes.  
  
"GEORGE! Calm down!" The woman cried out, slapping her husband's shoulder as she looked back. "Now Emily, don't-"  
  
"IT BLINKED AT ME!" The woman heaved an irritated groan as it was clear Emily wasn't going to listen. So she unbuckled, got up and went back to check the bag herself. Honestly of all the...  
  
...  
  
Ten seconds later the woman bodily threw the bag out onto the side of the road, jumped back into the SUV which, at that point, gunned it for the nearest town, leaving the luggage behind in the middle of nowhere. Slowly but surely the bag jostled and bumped around as the zipper to the main compartment was further undone by a few fingers slipping out from inside the bag. After a good half a minute of effort the bag was open and a mess of broken, contorted limbs and a crushed torso spilled out from the bag, laying out onto the road while covered in an all too familiar red and black costume.  
  
"Oh gee, don't ask me how I'm doing or if I was comfortable, just toss me out the second you find me! I swear, people's manners these days." Deadpool groaned and moaned as, slowly but surely, his healing factor started to stitch his body back together; sliding bones into place, expanding out his torso as his ribs knitted neatly back into position and slowly but surely allowing him to stand up on his feet. "They even left their prescriptions behind. Good luck to them getting a refill when they don't even have the bottles... oh hey, there's one left." Deadpool reached into one of the empty bottles and, pulling up his mask, threw back the pill and swallowed the last bit of his lunch. "Mmm, delicious."  
  
Deadpool popped his bones back into their shoulders as he took a look around, doing a quick double take as he gave a grin. "Oh hey, nice to see you jag-offs are back! I have to admit, in some distant way, kind of missed you guys. Hey, how's it going with that whole Quarantine thing in the future? Sounds like it's kind of a bitch. I wouldn't know of course because, well-" Deadpool popped his wrist back into its right spot after having bent it at a 67 degree angle to help him fit into the suitcase, "-healing factor." He said with an impish chuckle as he shook out his head. "Alright then... well the drugs and the car ride killed me some time but pretty sure New York is still a fair distance away." Deadpool shook out his head, blinking away the last bits of his high from lunch as he stroked his chin.  
  
"I swear, can you believe those people? Why, back in the day families on road trips would totally let total strangers hitch a ride with them as far as they could go... or at least that's how it seemed from the movies and cartoons I grew up on. I mean really, if you can't trust _Tiny Toons Adventures: How I Spent My Summer Vacation_ then what can you trust, exactly?" Deadpool stroked his chin as he casually walked along the road for a bit. "Then again the guy the pigs picked up was literally an axe murderer so maybe people did pick up on the right lesson... in which case, damn cartoons and comics; poisoning our youth by teaching them good moral lessons about strangers." Deadpool reached back into his pack in order to pull out his pistol, cocking it slightly as he made sure sand didn't get anywhere that might cause any issues. "Alright... way I see it we can do this one of two ways; first, the boring standard way where you guys see only the jump cuts and a few out of context scenes... or.... the fun way." Deadpool grinned as he looked back toward the direction of oncoming traffic, seeing a sports car gunning down the road his way.  
  
"You all have fun while I go ahead and hail this guy for a 'ride.'" Deadpool remarked dryly as he started waving his gun at the vehicle...  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_Day 2, Somewhere in Texas  
  
It's been a rough slog; turns out sports cars are still gas guzzling pieces of shit. I swear, it's 2019 people, get with the times, we got a planet to save! About half a day's drive from the border I ended up starting to run out of gas. Thankfully I am Canadian and so, therefore, I'm used to having to drive across long stretches of nothing before hitting something that vaguely resembles civilization so I kept calm, remembered my training and proceeded to pistol whip the owner of the car I kept tied up in the back seat. Turns out he was a smart boy and kept some gas in a little plastic thing in the trunk.  
  
With the car refueled, Jonathan and I, his name's Jonathan by the way, finally made it to civilization... well, I did. I dropped Jonathan off about a day away to make sure he couldn't tell anyone I'd kidnapped him and jacked his car. I left him with a bottle of Dasani though so I'm sure he's fine._  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_Day 3, The Mississippi River  
  
So apparently Jonathan's a little bitch who didn't appreciate being left out in the middle of nowhere with a cheap bottle of water and having his car stolen. The second he managed to crawl his way to some fucking town he must've given the police details about his ride and they started blocking off the road ahead of me in Lousiana. Not wanting to get stuck in Cajun Country I decided to buy sneak my way onto a passenger riverboat to head up the Mississippi River. Plan right now is to just keep riding the line up until I get off somewhere near the Ohio so I can just jack another ride on the interstate and head up to New York. Tell you what, hate being this deep in the South. It's fuckin' hot man; my suit just ends up soaking in sweat.  
  
Gonna have to steal some baby powder from one of those fat asses from Wisconsin hitching a ride._  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_Day 4, Kentucky  
  
I swear, people are so sensitive these days. You offer to re-enact a little bit of Huck Finn with an African American gentlemen in order to earn a little bit of extra pocket change for the slot machines and suddenly he's saying things like "You're a racist" and "You're not allowed to say that word" and "Are you even actually a passenger on this ship?"  
  
Honestly if he'd just said the second sentence I would've thought he was just misremembering his lines. Honestly I'm just surprised it took people that long to figure out that maybe the guy in the red and black jumpsuit was probably not a totally legit passenger. I guess it's not just the Mississippi that's slow around these parts.  
  
Ah well, at least I dodged getting stuck in Missouri. I'll take Kentucky any day of the week... besides, now would be a good opportunity for me to lodge a complaint with KFC. Seems to me like 'The Colonel' is operating on some Stolen Valor! As a red-blooded, meat-eating, God Fearing Canamerican, I can't let that stand!  
  
Don't try to feed me that 'he's not a fucking real character' shit either. The fucking Olympians have a canon place in the Marvel Universe, you're telling me they can't fit in some ante-bellum, racist old white guy selling fried chicken?_  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


_Day 5, West Virginia  
  
Day forty-three, the rednecks have accepted me as their God; I told them I got my skin condition from working in the coal mines. All the free pepperoni rolls, moon pies and moonshine I could ever want are mine for the taking._  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**

  
_Day 6, Pennsylvania  
  
As part of my usual tradition for whenever I pass through Pennsylvania I always take a little detour through Amish Country. This time around I convinced my followers back in West Virginia to load up the truck I told one of them I was 'borrowing' with enough moonshine to knock out your average college frat. Tell you what, you haven't really lived until you've seen an Amish kid named Jeremiah stumbling around drunk on moonshine before passing out on top of his horse.  
  
His father doesn't seem to appreciate me assisting with the boy's growth into manhood. Some parents are just never really willing to let their kids go. But that's just as much about learning how to be a good parent as it is for the kid to become a man. Mom and dad, when I said I wanted to be a mercenary you should've been more supportive; maybe then I wouldn't have turned out like the scarred freak I am today!  
  
At least Jeremiah's dad seems more supportive... in that he was literally supporting his son in order to rush him to the hospital. Turns out I might've been a little too liberal with the moonshine. Hopefully he didn't go blind...  
  
Eh, fuck it, it'd be a character building experience for him._  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"Fuck me, I would make it to New York right in the middle of the fucking Polar Vortex... just my luck." Deadpool shook his head, as he crawled out from the wrecked remains of the pickup truck. Fire burned in the back from the remaining jugs of moonshine going off in the crash as the merc with a mouth scratched his chin as he eyes the distant skyline of New York city. It was so close, so very close... but in this weather it'd be pretty rough goings on foot. How was he going to fix that...  
  
"Hey buddy, are you okay?! We saw you crash and thought we'd stop to see how you were doing! You don't look hurt at least..." Deadpool turned to look at the people approaching, getting out of their car to inspect him carefully. It was a family of four that had pulled up, eyes looking at him with a mix of caution and concern.  
  
...  
  
"Oh yeah, I'm fine... say, weird question I know but you got any suitcases in the back of your car?"


	52. Dreams

"You know... it's amazing how easily I can trick myself into wanting to come back to school."  
  
You looked up from a few notes you'd taken in class, putting together a few little extra bits of information you thought would be useful for later. With classes back in full session that meant that you'd be laboriously studying for the next several weeks. Before you became Spider-Man most of that studying would pretty much go solely to preparing for exams and labs and homework... nowadays you were almost constantly on the lookout for stuff that would help you when it came to this thing or that thing, but especially when it came to inventions. You never knew when a nice little nugget of information would swing your way.  
  
At the moment you'd taken to sitting with Gwen at a lunch table; Ned was off working with the librarian on some computer issues and, well, considering how much time Ned could spend around those machines he ended up being tapped as the guy the librarian trusted to help with this little issue or that. It was a pretty nice gig, all things considered. While Gwen's friends were going off to get their lunch and you were waiting for Ned to return so you two could get yours, you decided to drop in on Gwen and have a little chat with her. It was nice to get the chance to talk to her again in person and, besides, it was just good to catch up.  
  
"How do you mean?" You asked, genuinely curious, as Gwen heaved a sigh.  
  
"I'm not exactly sure how well this translates over your way but... well, you know, when break first hits of course I'm really excited! Like at that point we've been in school for so long, even with Thanksgiving to help break it up a bit, that I'm just ready to be out of there for a good, long while. Like, for real, just a little time away from this building, ya know?" You nodded at that; while you didn't quite get sick of school the same way other people did, you could at least sympathize to a certain degree. "So you know you get out and it's just a great time. Sure there was some trouble happening during this Winter Break but still, Polar Vortex and all, I'd definitely have preferred to be out of school than in it from the start, ya know?"  
  
"Heck, arguably we shouldn't even be here with the Polar Vortex raging." You remarked, recalling those conversations you'd had when the issue was coming up.  
  
"Right? Anyway, so I just do my thing, I have my fun... but then it's like... I dunno, you do what you want to do so much you eventually get to a point where you run out of stuff to do and doing the fun stuff becomes routine. I just kind of sit around bored for a lot of the day, taking naps or the like, and... I dunno why, I don't know how I can be so stupid every single time... but nonetheless it happens every single time. I get that niggling little thought in my head that 'hey, you know, at least School broke up the day a bit and I can see a lot more people a lot more regularly'. It starts small at first because the schoolwork and how boring classes are stick with ya, ya know?"  
  
"RIght, right." You said again, giving a nod as you motioned for her to continue.  
  
"Still, as time goes on that thought starts to get bigger till the end of break starts to come along and, suddenly, you don't even remember why you didn't like going to school in the first place! Like, all my friends are there, people I haven't met before are there, it gives me stuff to do so I'm not just sitting around playing drums all day when my friends can't meet up with me and, you know, learning isn't that bad right? I'm just exaggerating how boring the teachers can be or how obnoxious all the homework is, surely." Aaah you were seeing where this was going.  
  
"So I come back here first day and, you know, I'm trying to be with it. I'm trying to stay positive! I'm trying to keep those good feelings going. This semester is going to be totally different, I'd say. I'm going to enjoy school this semester and really, really take my education very seriously and not gripe about it! It's important." She declared with a firm nod as you can't help the amused smile that crosses your lips.  
  
"How long does that last, exactly?"  
  
...  
  
"I've already burnt out that rope today. I'm back to hating school and wishing we were on break." You watch, with a laugh, as Gwen lets her head drop on her books, the young woman giving a blustering sigh as she shakes her head. "So dumb."

"There, there. It's okay. It's only the first day of the rest of your life, after all." You watch as the color visibly pales from Gwen's face as she looks back up at you, the blonde young woman shaking her head vigorously as she crossed her fingers in front of her.  
  
"Don't you dare jinx me like that, Peter!" Gwen audibly shuddered as she shook herself out, blue eyes tense as she looked around. "God, if this was the kind of thing I'd spend the rest of my life doing... woof." You laughed at that, leaning back a bit to let a good old belly laugh rip through you as you grinned at her.  
  
"Ah, so you're too good for a life of drudgery and small tasks, huh?" You asked, a small grin on your face as Gwen gave a short snort with a firm nod.  
  
"Damn straight! Nah, Gwen Stacy isn't going to trudge through school only to end up with some job that feels like school only I'm an adult so it's even sadder! No no... I'm going to hit it big with my band and hit the big time!" Gwen waved her hands in the air as if she was presenting some sign or another. "Our names lit up on a board announcing our latest gig, fans screaming our names as we rock out. It'll be great! We'll be famous... or hopefully we'll all be famous. I'll admit, it'll feel pretty bad if I spend all this time working to get this band rolling and start rocking too if I end up just being the Ringo of the group."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Ringo who?" You asked, genuinely puzzled as Gwen just slapped her hand on the table with one hand and pointed at you with the other.  
  
"Exactly! I don't want to end up like that! No 'Gwen who' for me, that's for damn sure!" You laugh again at that as you both lean back in your seats, calming down a bit as you nodded.  
  
"Anyway, getting back to the issue at hand... I do get you, to a certain extent at least. Too much of a good thing can be bad, even if it's a break from school." Gwen nods at that, though you had to admit you certainly wouldn't have minded even more free time from school because... well, it's not like you ran out of things to do over the break. Heck, you had so much more to do and that you could've kept going that it just made you think about what could be. "Really, it'd just be great if we could pick our own schedule, you know? We could take time off whenever we want, go to school when we want and just swap back and forth between that as we needed. It wouldn't be this set thing and we'd just, you know, have this whole range of freedom."  
  
"Pretty sure that's how tutoring worked back in the day." Gwen muttered, rubbing her chin as she thought very seriously about it as you shrugged.  
  
"I dunno about that but, if it did, then... man, that would just be nice." You could go to school in order to get schoolwork and tests done whenever and, well, whenever you felt like you had other things more urgent to do then school you could just go on a break whenever and... do those things. Before it would've been like with Gwen; just sitting around, relaxing and enjoying yourself with small activities until you eventually got bored even of them and started hankering to go back to school. Nowadays though... man. Going out for Patrols without worrying about conflicting with your school schedule or homework, being able to sit down in the basement and work on inventions and gadgets without having to worry about studying for tests, no having to have Uncle Ben take you to school when the weather's bad, no having to go to school even when your Aunt and Uncle might be able to use an extra set of hands around the house.  
  
Just having absolute freedom to be whoever Peter Parker needed to be that day... and to do whatever Spider-Man needed to do.  
  
That sounded great.  
  
"It's a good dream." Gwen admitted, sighing wistfully as she leaned a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, a good dream... but just that. Still, it's good to have dreams." Gwen nodded, shrugging her shoulders.  
  
"Yessir. Good to have dreams. It's why I'll put up with school being such a snore if it means I can keep my dad happy, and keep my options open, while I try to make my dream a reality." You nodded at that as Gwen pointed your way. "Speaking of... what about you, Peter?"  
  
"What about me?"  
  
"Well I've been talking about my relationship to school and how it conflicts with my dreams and what I want to do. Heck, me being part of a band was practically one of the first things we talked about. Don't think I've ever heard you say what it is you want to do when you're out of here, exactly?"  
  
...  
  
Huh. You guess you hadn't yet, had you?

"Errr... something... sciency?" You suggest, a wry smile on your face as Gwen just chuckles a bit.  
  
"Well, it might be predictable but, hey, can't say it doesn't make a certain amount of sense." Gwen said with a shrug as you nodded.  
  
"Yeah but, more seriously, I'm not 100% sure yet. I mean, I am on science but... like, with specifics... I dunno. I guess I haven't put as much work into that party yet. Maybe I'll get my degree in biology or chemistry... or maybe both." Do your parents proud, you suppose, by getting your degrees in both of their specialties. That'd be pretty neat. "Probably end up doing research work, writing a few papers... or maybe invent something on my own time, if I can. I should probably go for a Doctorate but, well, I want to keep things open." Gwen nodded at that, shrugging her shoulders.  
  
"Again, kind of predictable but that's fair. People don't have to have their lives figured out right now." Gwen remarked as she just pointed at herself. "That just makes me exceptional, I guess." You rolled your eyes at that but, you had to admit, there was a certain degree of jealousy you had that Gwen was so certain about what she wanted to do. "Besides... not exactly the worst career you could pick." You see Gwen's smile twitch into a frown for a moment, causing you to blink curiously before she waved at her friends. "Looks like they got my food. I'll talk to you later, Peter."  
  
"Oh, yeah, talk to you later Gwen." You got up and walked away, letting Gwen and her friends take their seat as you walked back to where you and Ned had set up shop. While you would continue waiting for Ned, you couldn't help but glance down at your fist, rubbing it a bit.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
"Sorry about this; ordinarily we'd drive ourselves but... well..." You glanced over at their driveway and saw the car; both of its headlights were busted out and the front of the car was dented in. Clearly these people had been in an accident of some kind and, in these weather conditions, couldn't exactly drive out on their own.  
  
"Hey no problem; you said you needed me to take this down a few blocks?" You asked, curious, as the older couple nodded.  
  
"Yes, yes, the address is on the slip of paper you got there. If the weather was better we might risk it ourselves but-"  
  
"Hey, I get it. Besides, you're paying me to do a job so it doesn't really matter why you need it done, right?" You asked, shrugging your shoulders as you did so. You weren't really sure how true it was but if it would help reassure this older couple then you were willing to lay it on a little thick.  
  
"Bless you, my boy. Good luck out there." The older couple closed their door after paying you, leaving you to turn to face the blizzard like conditions of the polar vortex.  
  
...  
  
"Eh, it'd be worse if I didn't have Spider Powers." You said with a shrug as you started marching along to your destination; playing delivery boy for a nice chunk of change definitely wasn't something you'd turn your nose up at.

 **xXxXxXxXxXx**  
  
It was a slow process; you didn't really want to go out of your way to buy enough money for these materials again. 30 dollars was a lot to sink all at once and, really, you weren't looking forward to doing so again if you made some minor screw up in the whole process. As you attached the various bits and ends, admittedly with less junk with people less able to move to dump stuff from their homes in the midst of the Vortex, you slowly but surely made the adjustments you needed here and there. You'd managed to jury-rig a nozzle to help extract the Webbing from the chamber without letting it leak out or letting air get in, kept things secure, adjusted the PSI to ensure that there wouldn't be so much pressure that it'd essentially combust the Webbing inside...  
  
After a while you took a good, long look at your little model and put it through a few paces...  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
Well.  
  
It didn't explode...  
  
In fact it seemed to basically have no hiccups at all.  
  
You heaved a sigh of relief at that, wiping sweat away from your brow as you cracked your knuckles and kept observing the prototype. You'd let it go for a few hours just to see how it'd respond on the sort of longer time-scale you'd need to be keeping it on to ensure that it would work. You put in some Web Fluid to test and it seemed like it would work... and the extraction went well.  
  
Alright then, you think that was it. You could disassemble this prototype and then reassemble it into the larger, finished product sometime in the next couple days...  
  
You heaved a sigh of relief, already feeling the weight on your wallet lessening just thinking about how this project would turn out.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**   


You rubbed your fist, gloves slipped on over them, as you continued shadow boxing around your secret hideout, doing your best to add a little more technique to your fighting form. That talk about the future brought another question to your mind. Spider-Man. He had to factor into any plans you had in the future, of course. Because if recent events told you anything was that you'd have no shortage of reasons to go out and do your thing anytime soon. Vulture could've been a flook and, sure, Vulture 'and' Electro could've been a flook, combined with some of the other smaller crimes you'd stopped but... well, coincidences only go so far.  
  
You'd need to keep up being Spider-Man which, hey, you weren't exactly against given how much you enjoyed it. Still... it did present the very real question of how long you'd be Spider-Man for. Would you really still be doing this ten years from now? Maybe even more...  
  
Gwen might've been right when she said you didn't have to have your life figured out now but, still, how long could you keep the Superhero thing up you wondered?  
  
Something to worry about later. For now, it was time to just keep swinging.


	53. So Close

Man, this weekend had been pretty productive, if you did say so yourself. As you swung through the Manhattan air, shivering a bit as you went from building to building, you took a glance at your Web Shooters, a grin sneaking up under your mask. It'd taken hours of work being very careful with your Uncle's power tools to do it but, lo and behold, you'd actually managed to accomplish it! It had mostly been shaping a new bit of metal with some of his tools and then cutting the nozzle in just the right way but, after a while, you managed to put it all together. While the strands of Webbing had been nice they had some pretty obvious limitations that you noticed the longer you used them.  
  
For one, the strands only came out one at a time and in a thin line. Now... that was okay for a lot of things but, well, it usually meant having to play tug of war with guns rather than just immediately covering them, and you couldn't just fire and forget it when it came to putting them away; you had to attach one end of the strand to something. That really was the big thing, now that you thought about it; the strands depended so much on you and what you were doing, you couldn't really just fire away and then focus on doing something else.  
  
Plus it limited the amount of stuff you could grab to just one thing and it meant that, if you were catching something, you were doing so with one, thin line. Not great.  
  
Now though you had this net that, in a stroke of brilliance if you did say so yourself, you even managed to make it look like a proper Spider's web! You could fire it out and it would just streak through the air, opening up and then catch whatever it was in its path. If it was close to a wall it could even trap it against the wall... or if the Webbing had enough mass compared to the thing, it could drag it along and attach it to a surface...  
  
Hmmm, note to self, thicker and higher mass Webbing.  
  
Anyway, on top of that you could actually use it to make nets or just stuff to carry. You'd already experimented making a hammock and making a little hobo sack. It was pretty cool, if you did say so yourself! Only problem was... well, you actually had to fiddle with it to get it to work. You put it on a rolling system with the other strand nozzle so that you could switch between the two but... well, one of the things about working with analog was that it needed muscle power. So you had to quickly flick a switch toward the front of the Web Shooter in order to slot the new nozzle into place. It'd be slow until you could make it more precise but... well, without electricity and electronics it'd never be automatic.  
  
Such was the burden of analog.  
  
Still, it saved you a lot of money on batteries and, speaking of saving money, you'd even finished the Web Fluid container! You'd already suctioned in a good amount of your remaining Web Fluid once you got it done so you should be able to start seeing some savings right away. It'd be really nice! Not to mention you'd swung by your hidey hole and gotten more training in! This weekend had really been turning up Spider-Man!  
  
You were so pumped, so ready to get out there and do some testing. Mess with some bad guys, make use of the net... oh man, it'd be so cool! You were so ready to go, so ready to really test this all out but... well.  
  
You sighed as you landed up against a high rise's window, a small condo behind you as you leaned your head back against the glass, supporting yourself by just your feet. Manhattan had been quiet from your end and from Ned's end; what limited amount of info he could get said that there was nothing afoot today in the city... and, well, you weren't exactly finding any crimes swinging around either. Looks like today was just gonna be a quiet day in Manhattan... which was weird.  
  
A little desperate for some action to test this all you ended up pulling out your cell phone and dialing Ned, giving him a quick few rings before he picked up.  
  
 _"Hey there dude. Find anything yet?"_ Ned asked, sounding curious, as you awkwardly scratched the back of your mask.  
  
"I was actually about to ask you the same question." You sheepishly muttered as Ned laughed on the other end, your eyes scanning the surrounding buildings and streets looking for any sign of action that could be fun. "You sure nothing's popped up Ned? I gotta tell you, I really want to break this new upgrade in..."  
  
 _"Dude I feel ya... and if I had something for you, I'd tell you. The police have been even quieter than usual though. I think it really is just gonna be quiet today, man."_ You sighed as you shook your head, keeping the phone by your ear as your other hand went back to support you on the glass.  
  
"Great... well, I guess that's not such a bad thing itse-AAAH!"  
  
[ ***Pop***](https://youtu.be/y1VrsV8sItE)  
  
By gut instinct alone you activated your Wall Crawling powers, fingertips grabbing at the bit of glass that you had... pushed through? You panicked for a moment, thinking you'd just busted someone's window open by accident. Oh man, did vigilantes even leave apology notes? You sighed, a little aggravated, as you brought your hand back... only to see, instead of shards of glass stuck to your fingertips, it was one piece of glass. One perfectly circular, cleanly cut piece of glass. Your eyes widened a bit as you turned your head to look. Sure enough there was a matching hole in the window behind you; perfectly circular and clean. You ducked your head down to look inside and... well, it looked big enough for you, though only just so. You looked around the apartment building and... well, nothing looked amiss?  
  
Except for the obviously cut hole in the side window. Hobie wasn't out of jail yet though... and he wasn't this clean with his cut, that was for sure. Everything looked way too tidy...  
  
"Hey, Ned? You sure the police haven't mentioned anything yet?" You asked for confirmation, tracing your fingers along the rim of the glass as Ned sighed.  
  
 _"Trust me dude, they're not mentioning anything. Why do you ask anyway? Think you found something that says otherwise?"_ You paused a bit as you looked around again, before putting the glass back into place.  
  
"I do trust you, and you're probably right that the police aren't saying anything... but yeah. Yeah I did.


	54. The Chase Begins.

_"Heading back out to Manhattan so soon? I know you said you found that hole in the glass at that condo you swung by but... I mean, you think what everyone heard is true then? That Hobie's not actually in jail?"_  
  
"Don't get me wrong, it doesn't exactly make a whole lot of sense. Even if they didn't lock him up and even if his family's excuse was to just save face, he hasn't been back to school in all that time since I caught him. Plus even if he did get let off it'd be pretty hard for him to sneak the suit out the police's evidence locker... presumably." You kept your cell phone by your ear as you swung through Manhattan, keeping your eyes and ears peeled as you looked out for any sign of a break in. "Still, if somehow the stars have aligned and that is true then I need to keep a lookout; Hobie went on a pretty big spree the last time he was free and I want to make sure there's no repeats..."  
  
_"If it's not Hobie?"_  
  
"Then it's still probably a good idea for me to make a showing of being out on the streets again. If this isn't Prowler but just some other thief who's going around cutting their way into the offices of the rich and powerful then, you know, maybe knowing that i'm active in the region will get them to back off a bit." You swung around some more, landing up against another building. After your mystery run-in over the weekend you'd decided to go ahead and just start scanning around Manhattan. Like you'd said to Ned on the phone, you had two possibilities; a non-Prowler possibility and a Prowler possibility. In the latter case you definitely needed to be out and about and looking for Hobie under the unlikely circumstance that he was getting into trouble again... and maybe get a question or two answered about what was up, exactly.  
  
If it wasn't Prowler then a few passes around the city would surely get whoever this was to knock it off and stop with all this industrial espionage stuff. Vulture, Liz's kidnapping, Prowler cutting his way into someone's private office. It wasn't something you exactly had the warm fuzzies about.  
  
_"I guess I get that. Well, good luck man, I'll try my best to keep an ear out just in case but... well, if the police haven't said much of anything yet."_  
  
"Yeah, I hear ya." You turned off your phone and slipped it away into your bag as you swung around, going higher up in order to find a roof in order to set down and scout out for a bit. You heaved a small sigh as you shook out your arms, glancing about as you tried to see if you could spot anything.  
  
You looked around, eyes peeled for anything... and then you see it. At the top of a hotel, a condo of some kind. You quickly fired off a Webline and got to swinging, crossing the distance and Wall Crawling up the rest of the way in order to make it to the condo's level. Sure enough, there it was; a nice, little circle cleanly cut in the glass. You glance inside and, sure enough, it's another rich guy's place. You heaved a sigh as you slipped in as quietly as you could, immediately moving to stealth around in order to avoid being spotted yourself.  
  
You did your best to immediately make your way to some furniture, hiding against it as you glanced about. This place was pretty well full up on furniture this time around; with Prowler you'd hit him in what seemed to be more of a studio apartment with a second floor built into the condo, giving a lot of open air space. There was still some of that here but the person involved clearly liked to decorate way more. It was pretty swanky, all things told. You started clambering your way through though, looking for a way into some kind of office or another. If they were anywhere they were probably busting into this rich dude's private office and looking to... to...  
  
Okay what was this?  
  
You glanced over, carefully, one of the art pieces you'd hid behind to see a standing display case... or what was a standing display case. It wasn't broken or anything it was just... well, a display case that wasn't currently displaying anything was kind of useless, when you thought about it. Inside of the glass, a neat hole cut in the front obviously, was a bust of some kind; it only had half a head and was only of a person's shoulders and neck... it looked like the kind of thing a person might use as a display stand for a fancy necklace in a jewelry story.  
  
So what, your would-be robber broke into a condo in order to steal a fancy necklace?  
  
...  
  
That was refreshingly straightforward, actually.  
  
["Well now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1VrsV8sItE)... this is a rather interesting turn of events."  
  
You tensed up immediately, sliding around in order to tuck yourself into a corner and hide again. You perked your ears up as the voice ended up ringing out through the condo. The numerous items and wide walls and ceiling of the condo ended up making the echoing of the voice pretty wild, sending it rumbling around the space as you tried your best to find the source of it... and more important, keep yourself hidden.  
  
"I saw that someone had decided to follow me in but... well, it's awkward. I can't exactly see you myself. Did they let you out of jail already? See the name the paper gave you? 'Prowler'; it has a solid ring to it." Okay, good the owner of the voice... a woman, by the sounds of it, hadn't seen you yet either. Which was... awkward. You hadn't seen them but they hadn't seen you yet either.  
  
"Sorry to disappoint but I'm afraid you've got the wrong guy." You said back, your own voice echoing distantly through the room as you snuck around, trying to position yourself to spy this thief.  
  
"Oh! Clearly I do; Prowler wouldn't have actually talked back!" The voice which, yeah, was a woman and a relatively young one at that, said with an enthusiastic laugh before a hum echoed throughout the room. "Well then... let me see here. If you're not Prowler then you'd have to be someone pretty capable; not just everyone can make their way up to the condo of an apartment from the outside. I have my suspicions about who could've crawled their way up here-" You smirk at the joke as you kept slinking around, realizing she was probably doing the same, "-but I do also have to leave it open for some very enthusiastic amateurs. I shouldn't get my hopes up too much; a girl can only stand so much disappointment."  
  
"Well hey, there's one easy way for you to get your answer; how about on the count of three we both jump out? Then you know who's here and I get to see who I'm Webbing up for the day" You offered as you moved about the room, keeping your eyes peeled in the shadows of the furniture and cast about the apartment as low, flowing laughter echoed in the room, bouncing off the walls before the young woman spoke spoke again.  
  
"You know, I have to hand it to you; at least you're upfront about wanting me to expose myself. A lot of other guys would be too shy to think of asking so soon." You choked at that, cheeks turning red as you were very grateful for the mask hiding your features. "Still, I think you should be a little more patient~, if you'd like my advice." She hung on the word for a moment before she moved on. "After all, everybody knows that half the fun in is in the antici-"  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"We-"  
  
["-pation."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlwnbcxBuzI) A low whisper, accompanied by an amused giggle.

"What can I say, I've never really been a patient guy." You remarked back, doing your best to cool your cheeks as you looked around and really absorbed the situation. "Even got on the naughty list for opening up my Christmas presents early." You hadn't but, hey, banter was banter and you wanted to keep her talking so that you'd have a better idea of where she actually was. Given the space in the room you'd have a much better chance of finding her if you could get on some different ground, you thought... so maybe sticking low and hiding shouldn't be in the plan?  
  
"Oh my, how terrible. To think, people would call me the criminal here. What would your family have to say?" There was laughter in her voice as it continued to echo off the walls, causing you to snort as you started looking at all the ways in and out of the condo.  
  
"Please, you are totally a villain; after all, listen to you edging in on my monopoly on cool references. Afraid I'm going to have to haul you in for that one." You remarked, dryly as you moved out of your hiding place. You'd already planned to do a lot more moving and jumping about in order to try your best to find this woman in the first place so there wasn't much point to just sitting around and hiding when, realistically, you had stuff to web up. As you moved to get up you switched to the net mode in the nozzles and fired off two of them. The Webbing spread out and open as it flew through the air, just as you intended. The one you aimed for the open window was right on target and snatched along the hole, effectively acting as a cover for it. You smiled as you watched the other net fly... only for it to hit an art piece...  
  
A tasteful art piece of a rather pretty looking woman...  
  
You didn't even have to hear her chuckle to start blushing.  
  
"My my, do be careful with that if you're going to 'haul me in' with it. Wouldn't want you getting your goop in my hair with that kind of aim." Oh merciful God, please, just kill you now. You couldn't believe that actually just happened.  
  
"I-IT'S A NEW-" You coughed into your fist, reeling yourself back in and keeping from yelling with a slight squeak to your voice. "It's a new Web Shooter function! I'm still getting used to it!" You declared as you jumped up to the ceiling, taking a good look around the room as you tried to see if you could spot her.  
  
"Oh, is that what we're calling it these days? Well, if it'll make you feel a little less self-conscious I usually need a little time to get used to my gizmos too, Spider-Man." You couldn't help but groan at the joke... even if, fair's fair, you'd probably make the exact same one in her place. More than that though...  
  
"So, what gave me away exactly? Stunning good looks, my voice or..." You fired off another couple nets as you spoke, managing to catch that door as well as another door in the apartment.  
  
"Well, unless someone else is stealing the whole Spider-gimmick, I can only think of one person who'd make Spider Web looking netting." Ah, of course, that would explain it. "I must say, I've been looking forward to this! I've been waiting to see if you'd show up for a while now; I was excited to spend some quality time having fun with New York's best Spider-themed vigilante." You chuckled to yourself; not like there was more than one. "I have to say, you're not disappointing either; definitely more fun than just hanging out by myself."  
  
"Aw shucks." You chuckled to yourself at that as you moved around, trying to spot her... looks like either she knew where you were and was moving around to deal with that fact or she was just getting lucky and managing to remain out of your sight. Either way you just had to keep up the pressure. Sooner or later she'd slip up and you'd be able to catch her. "I'm glad to hear you're having fun too." Were you having fun? Well you were quipping back and forth and, as much as you'd embarrassed yourself and she'd managed to dig into that banter... and you were laughing. So, yeah, you were having fun. "Just hope that keeps up when I catch you. Got a win streak that I really need to keep going, you know?" Technically you supposed Electro might've broken that streak with his one getaway but eh, details.  
  
"Oh I understand perfectly; I'm on my own little win streak myself. Still, I think we can both agree that a winning streak is less fun when you're playing the game on easy mode. The chance to lose spices things up... and makes victory all the sweeter. Banter isn't too bad of a sweetener either." You chuckled at that as you fired off another couple nets and closed up the last of the entrances, feeling confident in the fact that you'd probably locked her down out of escaping at this point.  
  
"So, you mentioned Prowler earlier. You know him? Is that a coincidence or do cat burglars have a secret club that I should really know about?" You kept moving, waiting for her to keep going while you continued to look for her.  
  
...  
  
"Hello?"  
  
The silence had been a bit unusual. Ever since she started talking it was basically a consistent back and forth between the two of you. The sudden silence was... weird. You thought to ask what was up; had she actually gone silent at the mention of some kind of club... then you heard something. A cell phone ring tone... definitely not one of yours either. You'd know if it was... because you'd be hearing it a lot closer to home. Unlike the woman, who could force her voice to echo more in the apartment, the cell phone's ring was distinct in the room. You quickly jumped over, trying to find the source of it to see if you could nail her. Once you cleared an art piece and looked down you found... a...  
  
Well, it kind of looked like a doll? Little black cat with yellow eyes and white fur around its paws. It was ringing for a while and... oh dear.  
  
The light around the window told you immediately that you'd just found a decoy. You quickly looked back towards the window and saw... uh. Cast against a fire that was slowly consuming the Webbing blocking up the opening in the window was a young woman dressed in a [black and white suit](https://i.ya-webdesign.com/images/black-cat-marvel-png-12.png). It covered her from head and toe, hugging the contours of her form, and seemed built into some boots and gloves as well. White fur trim seemed to mark where the boots and gloves began, as well as showing what was presumably a hood to keep her face and head out of the winter cold. The hood was down, for the moment and it showed off a long mane of striking hair that was as white as the very snow falling outside. She wasn't much darker herself, being pretty much as... well, pale as you, to be fair.  
  
Her eyes were covered by a pair of goggles though, as one hand pulled away from the Webbing, the other reached up for her goggles and pulled them up. Green eyes looked back at you with a grin permanently set into them.  
  
"Sorry, needed a little time to get ready. As far as Prowler goes, don't you worry. It's just professional courtesy to know someone in the same line of work; we don't hang out, if that's what you were wondering." She said, her lips spreading out into a wry smile as she chuckled.  
  
"Uh... I mean, hold on!" You shook yourself real quick, clearing your head, before quickly firing off two shots, nets flying the cat burglar's way. With a great deal of grace you watched as she quickly moved to avoid one shot but, as she landed, the other hit her dead on the torso. It wasn't enough to knock her back it was enough to put a layer of it around her. She looked down at the stuff, almost more curious than anything, before grinning up at you.  
  
"Well hey there, look at that! You scored a point _and_ you didn't get any of it in my hair." She said with a warm chuckle as you just arched an eyebrow.  
  
"Well I'm glad you think that's neat-" And, hey, you weren't exactly displeased that you managed that two-for-one either, "-but now I'm afraid you're coming with me. That stuff's pretty tough, after all." You said, putting your hands on your hips.  
  
"Hmmm, I'm afraid our game's not quite over yet."  
  
"Oh what, are you gonna jump-" Your remark was cut off by the flames causing your Webbing to snap and crack, the window's opening fully exposed... and sure enough, before you could even finish, the Cat Burglar gave a wide grin as she, indeed, threw herself out the window. "I WAS KIDDING, WOAH!" You cried out, eyes going wide and causing your mask's eyes to follow as you immediately ran for the hole. You reached up and switched your Web Shooters; not only to the Webline mode to try and catch her and swing to safety but also to your other cartridge. It took a while of swinging around to find this place and you'd been firing a fair few nets. Better safe than sorry. You leaped out of the window with a running start and immediately did your best to dive; her arms were shimmying around in the Webbing net as she fell, already a good few stories down on you from getting the earlier fall off.  
  
You kept yourself pointed like an arrow straight at her, pointing your Webline at her and lining up a shot; with both of you moving around the same speed in the same direction it'd still take some time to catch her but, hopefully, you'd be able to tag her before either of you would splat...  
  
Not that it ended up being something you needed to worry about.  
  
You watched as the Webbing around her snapped and, finally, was forced from her, flames erupting from bits and bobs of it again as she gave you a smile, seeing you diving at her. She quickly reached down to her waist, a belt latched around it, as she slipped whatever it was back inside... and then hit something large you hadn't quite made out before on the belt. Immediately from the brick at her hip was fired a line and a hook, just zooming through the air at incredibly velocity up and away. You heard a distant 'clank' and then, suddenly, the cat burglar went from being below you and falling away... to gliding up to your level but away in a swing.  
  
As you two passed elevations your eyes met for a moment. Yours wide under the mask from the display and hers giving a playful wink to go along with her wide grin as she swung up and away. She spun in the air as the hook and line released, looking back at you and giving you a wave before, once again, the grappling hook launcher, because that's what it had to be, fired another line and swung her again. It took a moment for you to pick your jaw up for you to shake your head and fire off a Webline, immediately giving chase as the both of you started swinging around the New York skyline, the cat burglar's laughter echoing across the skyline as you followed.  
  
"Come on, Spider! Don't let me be the only one showboating!" She called out, the wind whipping around both of you as she called back at you.

"Oh ho! Big mistake lady! You actually stood a chance when this game was hide and seek! We're playing tag now!" You called out, a chuckle erupting from your lips as you swung after her. Honestly, while Prowler had been able to glide and Vulture had been able to fly, going toe to toe with someone who was moving so similarly to the way you moved through the city was just kind of a brand new experience. It was like being able to watch yourself from the outside looking in, one the one hand; she fired off line, used it to swing herself along and just soared through the air as if she didn't have any trouble with it at all. It was different than a YouTube video of yourself too; quality was way better, obviously, and following in behind her gave you a view that no one but yourself really was privy to.  
  
On the other hand you could immediately recognize that it wasn't exactly like you. For one thing you'd started running along walls and down what parkour you could in order to keep up without having to spend your Webbing in huge amounts. However, she had to deal with that less; that grappling hook of hers, presumably, didn't have ammo and instead relied on some kind of system that relied on a single, or small handful, of lines. So while you were running on buildings she was just swinging away without a care to her stock. Secondly the grappling hook itself presented an interesting difference; it was pulling her forward with each fire so it was adding momentum to her swings that you had to force in with your own muscles. Finally... well, she was definitely a lot more graceful about this than you.  
  
Heck, you hadn't even been able to start lining up a shot to fire a Webline at her because you kept waiting for the moment she'd turn her back on you... but her form was impeccable. She was flipping through the air, tumbling here and there and just flat out spinning with each swing, her eyes always, from moment to moment, making sure to spot you so that you couldn't get that kind of a chance.  
  
Hell at this very moment she was actually swinging backwards, laughing slightly at your retort as she shrugged.  
  
"What can I say, hide and seek ended in a draw! Besides, games are no fun if you're not up against someone who can win!" She cried back and, hey, true enough you supposed. You fired off a Webline to try and tag her but she quickly fired off her own grappling hook, taking off in a direction between grabbing a corner of a building with her hands. You winced at the sounds of what felt like a nail on a chalkboard as her fingertips found purchase, allowing her to pivot off the corner in order to take a sharp turn with her full momentum. You had to fire off two Weblines in order to do a successful turn yourself; one to redirect your moment and one to keep you swinging forward. Still you were up on her though and you were doing your best to maintain your distance, looking for the right spots to take your shots. You fired off another line and she, unexpectedly, fired her grappling hook straight up, starting to scale right up along a building in order to avoid it.  
  
You quickly touched down, dragging your feet into the wall of it in order to stick before running up, chasing after her as you both ascended the side of the building. You fired off another Webline and she, again, avoided it... but this time you had something else. Your Webbing managed to snag a bit of the building and, taking a hard pull in order to stretch the line taught, you shot yourself up after her, carrying your momentum forward as you opened your arms up in order to capture her. You raced forward and, for a moment, you were basically right on top of her. She looked at you with some surprise at the sudden turn of events and, to your surprise, her hands reached out and placed themselves on your shoulders.  
  
It was your turn to be surprised when your Spider-Sense didn't immediately trigger... which made way more sense when, instead of trying to strike you or something like that she kicked off the side of the building, her green eyes meetings yours under the mask as surprise melted away to excitement as she used your shoulders as a fulcrum, flipping herself up and around so that you only caught the wall while, for the briefest of moments, she was hanging around just behind you.  
  
She turned her head to speak to you and while your mask blocked it you could definitely feel the warmth of her breath against the side of your mask.  
  
"No touching yet, Spider." She laughed at that before, finally, her grappling hook ended up pulling her away, leaving you with a slight shiver at the lack of warmth. You immediately continued your pursuit, hopping over onto the same ceiling she had as you both started running. The good news here was that, even if she was still using the grappling hook to help her quickly move from spot to spot and roof to roof that, after all your running and after all that swinging, you all had gotten a good distance from the high rises and ended up at the balconies of some smaller apartments and the roofs of others. This meant that the both of you were running and parkouring more than you were before... which suited you just fine. However fast she could swing around and zip around you were definitely much faster when it came to running.  
  
Still, didn't help the cold bearing down on both of you as you sprinted across, the Polar Vortex still in full force.  
  
"Man, the wind chill is awful, isn't it? You sure you don't want to slow down and let me catch you? I'll take you somewhere nice and warm like, oh I dunno, a prison cell?" You offered with a grin, trying to sound as sickly sweet as possible to go along with the banter as she just laughed, looking back at you.  
  
"I appreciate the offer Spider but I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no. I shouldn't let dashing men escort me to such nice quarters so soon after meeting them!" Oh ho! So you were dashing? You kept up the chase as the both of you kept right on going, the cat burglar hopping to and fro as you slowly but surely realized what her game was. By now you thought you should've been able to line up a clean shot on the woman but she was making that a pain for you and, by the looks of it, intentionally so. She was ducking between the legs of water towers, running between air conditioning and heater units and, as you passed by some resident roofs and balconies, she even hopped over, or slid by, some citizens, making sure they'd be between you and her. All of this in order to interrupt your line of sight and keep you from firing your Webbing at her. Really, it was a seriously smart move on her part.  
  
Still, you were finding opportunities to shoot; she couldn't keep on running from you forever like this, not with how fast you were going. Still even when you attempted the same trick you'd pulled climbing up onto these roofs in the first place you hadn't managed to actually stick the zip again, allowing her to duck around and weave between what shots you could fire at her. Honestly, watching her flip and wheel around the various obstacles on the roof in order to avoid you was pretty cool; it was clear that what you did with extreme agility and natural prowess, she was pulling off with years of practice.  
  
Finally it seemed like you just about had her. As she jumped for a new roof you jumped to follow her, intent on collapsing on her once you had completely caught up...  
  
Up until she fired her grappling hook backwards and zoomed back under you, giving you a cheeky wave and a laugh as she went. You fired another Webline and, again, it missed as you fired your other in order to zip back as well. Stll, she had to know that she wasn't going to get away here; you had been back this way so she'd already turned over as much furniture and obstacles as were up here in order to block your shots and, by now, the people had cleared off entirely. Just as you were about on top of her again you watched as she jumped down off the side of the building, your eyes widening before you jumped after her; she had leaped down onto a fire escape but, rather than just settling herself on one of the level portions she was already sliding down one of the bars before situating herself in the midst of the escape, putting metal bars and numerous stairs between herself and your chance at an open shot at her.  
  
Immediately you followed her in amidst the fire escape and despite her best attempts and using the grappling hook to quickly ascend up and down the fire escape you were finding that your speed was letting you keep up quite easily here, ascending as she did and descending as she did.  
  
"My goodness, the way you're handling these bars is quite impressive, Spider. What is the Spider you've based yourself on, exactly? Spider monkey, perhaps?" She asked as, after one particular turn where you tried to fire but, again, she dodged out of the way, the two of you were on opposite sides of a floor grating, her grinning up at you from a level below.  
  
"Oh man, _and you've got jokes?_ Boy I tell you, you're a criminal after my own heart!" You quickly jumped out and off the side of the fire escape before swinging back in by one of the bars, the cat burglar already climbing up one of the sides to ascend another few levels before she grinned down at you.  
  
"My oh my, thank you for the compliment Spider. I've gotta say that, out of all the vigilantes I've run into, you're definitely my favorite." She said with a wide smile as you chased up after her, attempting to pin her in while she quickly hipped and hopped her way down the staircase of the fire escape.  
  
"Aw shucks, you're gonna make me blush... I mean, blush even harder than the exertion's already making me, that is." There was no point ignoring it either; both of you clearly were getting pretty damn tired. Even discounting what work you two might've done before this whole chase began in the midst of the polar vortex, a chase throughout the city that had easily cleared several blocks of streets and buildings by now, you both had exerted yourselves pretty heavily. For you that was less of a problem; superhuman anatomy and what not. Still, whatever else this cat burglar was, it was clear she wasn't superhuman; she was breathing deeply herself, sweat pooling on her brow as the exertion became more and more evident. You were both running each other ragged and, honestly, compared to some of the other crimes you'd stopped or crooks you ran into... well, at the very least no one could accuse you of not enjoying yourself. Even more so in her case, by the looks of it.  
  
Still, it was clear she was trying to think of new strategies. In the midst of your dance she pulled out something from her pocket and quickly punched a few things in, eyes scanning the screen as she grimaced and put the thing away; looking more like some kind of smartphone than anything. Having probably not found what she was looking for you could see she sighed, shrugged, and smiled as you two met eye to eye for a moment again. Again you fired off your Weblines and, again, she dodged out of the way of them before jumping clear off the fire escape entirely...  
  
Then she turned around, giving you a quick nod before firing off her grappling hook... into one of the building's windows. Your eyes went wide as her eyes shut, the cat burglar bringing her arms up to guard her face as the hook must've connected into something after breaking through the window with relative ease. She rocketed forward and with her own loud crash managed to break through it.  
  
"Holy..." You declared, quickly jumping around to get a good look inside. She'd managed to catch herself at the last moment, it seemed, keeping on her feet as she looked back at the window, spotting you looking in after her. Glass was around her in what seemed to be the common floor area of an apartment building, numerous closed apartments flanking the hall as she heaved a sigh. Blood dripped from a few cuts on her face as she gave you a weak grin.  
  
"Hope I didn't do too much damage. Wouldn't want to look bad in front of the hero." She said with a tired grin that made you blank for a moment before, with a firm shake, you got your mind back on track and active. She immediately jumped away, barely avoiding your grip as you tried to collapse in on her with a leap. She kept running and, this time, you both were basically jumping around each other as you moved through this level of the building, your firing off Nets with both Web Shooters as you tried to move to pin her in while she kept moving, eyes looking toward the only obvious exit for her; the staircase. It was an insane back and forth for a few moments as she ducked, dipped, dived and dodged around your Webbing, flips and jumps off the wall giving her ample room to move around as you, basically, ended up Webbing up numerous apartment doors instead of her. FInally your fired off another double barrage and hoped it would stick but, again, she managed to avoid them...  
  
Though this time you noticed a very obvious stumble at the end. Her breathing was ragged and hard as she sweat bullets. She was still grinning, still living in this moment... but you could watch her green eyes trail up to the staircase and, after a moment, watched her release a small, tired sigh. She fired off her grappling hook before you could fire another round and immediately she was carried up to the top of the staircase. You heard the door open at the top as you followed, closing just as you finally cleared the distance and moved to ram the door open yourself. You looked around, looking to get another trace on her, to try and find her and keep up the chase...  
  
Before noticing, much to your surprise, that she was basically right there. Off a little ways and sitting down, one leg crossed over the other, on top of a heating unit. She was shivering, she was sweating heavily and she was still breathing hard. Despite all of this she sat there with poise and as much strength as she could muster. She looked... satisfied. Despite the white handkerchief in her left hand being waved in the air, signaling surrender pretty obviously, she looked pleased as punch about the entire ordeal. As she watched you she offered a shrug.  
  
"If I tried to run at this point, well, who knows if I'd even be able to clear the roof." She offered by way of explanation as she laughed warmly, a simple nod accompanying the words as she kept those green eyes on you. "Congratulations, Spider."  
  
...  
  
Oh man, uh, what should you say...  
  
...  
  
"Did you... have that on you the entire time?" You pointed to the white cloth, the young woman giving a wry grin as she laughed.  
  
"I may have picked it up along the way."  
  
Despite yourself you couldn't help but laugh at that.

You kept your brow knitted for a moment, all too aware that some trick or ploy could be pulled. The young woman, around your age judging by a closer look at her, definitely seemed like the type to have tricks up her sleeve... Heck, she'd shown you she was throughout the chase. You quickly motioned for her to put her hands together and, after a quick roll of her eyes, she nodded and placed both hands together after setting the handkerchief to the side. With a quick shot you fired a net of Webbing over them and then a second for good measure, heaving a sigh of relief when the two shots landed. She brought her hands up to look at them as you approached, flexing her arms as she tried to pull the Webbing apart.  
  
"I can see why even big burly tough guys can't work their way out of this stuff." She commented idly, chuckling to herself as you just nodded, firing off another net here and a Webline there to keep her secure.  
  
"Yeah, I don't do things halfway... you know, unless I have to that is." You commented idly, heaving a sigh as you wiped your brow. Okay good so she was actually surrendering. That was a load off your mind! You don't think you've ever seen one of your more talented foes ever really do that before but, hey, guess there was a first time for anything. "Alright now, stand still, gonna go ahead and take a look see."  
  
"Mmmm, of course. Just try not to be too eager; we've just met, after all." You couldn't help but blush again at that, giving a few stumbling, perfunctory denials of that sort of intent before sighing and looking her over immediately. What made this even more awkward was the fact that, yeah, her suit hadn't exactly... exaggerated anything when it came to her looks. Keep your eyes focused there, Parker. You searched around her bags and pouches; you'd need to pull stuff out later of course but, for now, you were just looking... for... that... necklace, where was the necklace?  
  
...  
  
"So!" You clapped your hands together, rubbing them a bit as you grinned at her under the mask, taking a step back to get some space. "Since I won... how about you go ahead and tell me what you did with what necklace? I'll go ahead and consider that my prize." You watched as she pouted a bit at that, though an amused glint was in her eyes as she faked her disappointment.  
  
"Oh? Is my company not enough of a prize, Spider-Man? A girl could be hurt hearing that kind of thing." You blanched a bit at that but relaxed when she started smiling again, before heaving a sigh as you looked around. Going all the way back to the apartment while she was still so tired and covered in sweat wasn't exactly a great idea in this cold... so you did your best to heft her up in as safe and normal way as you possibly could, an effort that earned you a fit of laughter from her at just how awkwardly you were handing, well, man-handling her as you took her back inside the staircase. It would be chilly in here but, hey, it wouldn't be as bad as outside at least.  
  
"Ah well, can't blame a guy for trying right? In that case I'll just do my best to get a good look around see if I can find it... and make sure you won't get away." With that you quickly Webbed her up to a wall, using mostly nets to keep her in place as she seemed to be doing her best to be in a comfortable spot at least. Fair dues; you didn't figure being Webbed to a wall was exactly great. "First things first... on the off chance that I hit that 1-in-8,000,000 shot..." As you finished Webbing her up you reached up for her face. She laughed a bit but extended her neck out as best she could to give you a better position. You pulled off the goggles and noticing a domino mask underneath you adjusted your fingers to slip it off too. You tried to be careful of the hair the entire time of course and, once you pulled it off...  
  
["I have no idea who you are."](https://youtu.be/6bfBhIM5tb4?t=15) Mask and the goggles weren't hiding anything much, by the looks of it. The green eyes you saw and the look of her face were right there looking back at you still. No secret identifying features that wouldn't have already been seen before, no, scar or birthmark. Just... well, her normal face.  
  
"Well like you said, it was a 1-in-8,000,000 shot... and to be fair, I probably would've taken it too. Those are my kind of odds." She said with a wry grin as you nodded, creating a little web sack and placing her goggles and mask into them. You started putting a lot more stuff in there as you searched her, looking for any sign of the necklace or anything she might be able to use to escape. "Oh that's a nifty little trick. You can make your own loot bags! Must be very convenient~" She said, lightly kicking with one of her feet as she kept her eyes on you as you did everything in your power to make sure you knew where your hands were at all times.  
  
"It's not a loot bag, it's an evidence bag... plus, well, it's not as impressive as the toys you got here." You pulled out a little cylinder from one of her pouches. A quick application of it saw a red laser fire out, focused, that immediately set a bit of your Webbing ablaze. She winced at that and you immediately jumped, slapping it out with your hand as you both breathed a quick sigh of relief. "Which is fair; I make my own stuff after all and I'm only one guy on a budget... but seeing some of this stuff here?" You pulled out something else; the glass cutters she must've used to cut a hole in the window. They were pretty compact but also sharp to the touch. "I'm considering outsourcing! Come on, you gotta tell me where you get your wonderful toys!" You said with a smile underneath your mask, grinning from ear to ear at the jest as you kept going.  
  
Seriously though, this stuff was very well made... and that wasn't even getting to the grappling hook. It looked similar to the one that Walter Hardy used but... well, modernized. There was a lot of new additions to it by the looks of it and it was made more compact. Whoever designed it though knew what they were doing. Plus some of this stuff kind of reminded you of how Hobie's costume looked, though clearly that must've just been from reverse engineering some bits of it; Oscorp designed the originally stolen suit according to the news. Whoever made this stuff for the cat burglar must've just copied what they'd seen there.  
  
"Oh that'd be lovely, wouldn't it? I could introduce you two over tea and you could sit down and give him your wish list... before presumably Webbing him up and sticking him to a ceiling somewhere, right?"  
  
"Gotta say, you've got me read like an open book. Tell me, am I just that simple?" You asked with a slight laugh, the young woman giving you a warm chuckle as she shrugged.  
  
"Oh I just recognize the patterns in people's work is all. Still, 'fraid I'm going to have to decline that. Confidentiality and all that; he'd probably be really sore if I just gave out his contact info like that."  
  
"Ah yeah, you gotta respect the privacy of a man who outfits criminals. What would the world come to if you didn't?" She laughed at that, a grin on her face as she moved in the Webbing... though clearly her gesture was pretty much stopped in its tracks.  
  
"Complete and total anarchy! Dogs and cats living together, it'd be mass hysteria~" She rolled her words at the end as they slowly formed into a wry chuckle, causing you to nod at that as you kept on looking her over, essentially emptying her pouches into your little web sack. As you did so you managed to find that smartphone again. You quickly popped it open and... well, aside from a couple pictures of pigeons there wasn't anything on here except for a web browser.  
  
Made sense; this probably wasn't even her personal phone.  
  
"Last question, I promise." You said, not even understanding why you needed to say 'last question', given you were the vigilante by all rights interrogating her. It just felt more... appropriate? "I'm willing to bet I'll get an answer too, given you don't seem like the modest type."  
  
"Oh!" She said, with a furrow to her brow even as she grinned. "That's hurtful, Spider... I mean it's true, but you don't have to say it." You coughed into your fist to keep the chuckle from worming its way out before you turned back to her.  
  
"The second Guggenheim robbery a while back... I'm going to go out on a limb and say that was you, am I right?" Unless, God forbid, there was _another_ thief running around New York City.  
  
"Ah, quite astute. I presume you tossed a question like this Prowler's way?" She asked and, once she got a nod from you, she nodded as well. "Well seems as though I'm an open book too Spider, because you're quite right. The second Guggenheim Robbery or, you know, _the successful one_ was me." She would've done jazz hands, you thought, if she could move them in your Webbing. "Ta-da~"  
  
"Gotta admit, kind of surprised by that. Figured I might've... I dunno, scared folks off? Either that or Castle would've." You commented idly as the young woman just smiled at you.  
  
"You're not wrong and... well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't go grab that painting thinking I might run into you for that very reason."  
  
"Aw I'm blushing." You said with a jovial, joking tone even as, yeah, you were grateful the mask was hiding your face.  
  
"Oh I don't doubt that you've been blushing for a bit, Spider~" She said with a smirk before shrugging her shoulders. "Still, just because you stopped the previous thief from grabbing it that didn't mean that the person who was offering the money for the job in the first place was any less interested. They were offering pay for the painting and somebody was going to take another shot sooner or later." You nodded at that, even as you put your hands on your hips.  
  
"So no wanting to show up the old thief, huh?" You asked with a raised eyebrow as the cat burglar just gave a snort.  
  
"Now I didn't say that, did I?" You nodded at that as she shrugged. "The guy you arrested, Walter Hardy? He had a bit of a reputation. Sad as he might've seemed when you met him, he used to be considered the very best cat burglar in all of New York for decades. What better way to market yourself as someone worth doing work with than by showing up the most famous cat burglar by pulling off his failed heist?" Well, that did make a certain amount of business sense, you guess... if crime was a business you could understand. There was a joke about Wall Street in there somewhere, you just knew it. You nodded at that and, running out of things to ask, you tried to focus in on finishing your search and grab her gear. "Now then... mind if I ask you a question, Spider?"  
  
...  
  
You probably didn't have to... but after all of this and the banter you two had.  
  
"Sure, why not. Fair's fair, right?" You said with a shrug as you kept up your search.  
  
"Why exactly were you up around my neck of the woods, Spider?" You looked up at her, arching an eyebrow. "Seems like a funny place for you of all people to end up."  
  
"Uh... well, I found some place I think you robbed previously. So I figured I'd swing by the neighborhood and stop you." You said with a shrug as she just chuckled.  
  
"Oh that I can understand very well. Very direct cause and effect right there. What I mean is what brought you swinging around those high rises in the first place? Compared to your usual work down around the ground level, I'm just a little surprised is all; the latter fits your moniker as the 'Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man', after all."  
  
Oh hey, she knew the whole thing! Cool, cool.  
  
"I mean, yeah sure I suppose but, well, it's just what I do. Keep an eye out for crime and, hey, crime in these apartments is still crime."  
  
"Oh most assuredly so and the city would agree with you." You honestly blinked at that, the idea of the city of New York agreeing with you on much of anything being... well, weird. "That necklace I found cost a pretty penny indeed. If I go to jail New York City will make sure I stay locked up for a very, very long time for such a terrible crime. Though," She gave a short laugh as she blew a bit of hair out of her face, "-to be frank, it's probably even more valuable to the guy I took it from stolen than in his case. He'll probably make more money from the insurance than he spent on it. Which... well, isn't exactly the same for the crimes you usually stop on the ground level, huh?" She shimmied a bit to give a hint of motion. "If I meandered my way on down to some poor little jewelry shop on the ground level and stole right from them, I'd probably ruin them. The amount of harm crime like that can do to people is pretty serious... but New York probably wouldn't slap me with more than a month or two in comparison. Might not even have me on bail either." She gave a short shrug at that as... well, your mind couldn't exactly help but jump to guys like Flint and Alex.  
  
"Sure, that kind of stuff happens everywhere though." Shitty as it was, you had to admit. "What your doing is still a crime though and it's my job to fix that kind of thing. You know how it is; superhero." You said with a grin underneath your mask, one she met as she gave a nod.  
  
"True, true..." She said, before a wry smile formed on her face. "Still, and walk with me on this one... metaphorically." She said with a laugh as you nodded. "That necklace I stole is worth a lot of money. Even a few diamonds off of it-" There were _diamonds on it?!_ "-would fetch a very, very big price. If I took even a few of those diamonds and put them in the hands of the right people... Spider, I could do more good doing that once than you could stopping me from stealing one-thousand of those necklaces."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"Well... uh... do you?" You asked, quirking your brow a bit as you tried to search her face.  
  
"Hmmm... do I?" She asked, succinctly, before that same amused smile came on her face. "Still though, I should be careful; if by some chance I somehow accidentally convinced you of this, then this might be the first and last time we'd see each other... and I know I'd hate that." She said with a warm laugh as you, immediately, relaxed and took a deep breath. Ah, of course.  
  
"You're messing with me." You said, pointing up at her as she looked terribly offended.  
  
"Spider! The nerve." She said, closing her eyes and holding her chin up. "I haven't lied about one thing since we met."  
  
...  
  
"Those aren't mutually exclusive." You said, a small hint of a smirk crawling up at the corner of your mouth as you forced back your own chuckles, watching as the cat burglar did everything in her power to maintain her offended expression... before, finally, a smile forced its way onto her lips as she looked down at you.  
  
"Alright well... let's just say you're right. That I don't believe a word I just said and that I think that's all meaningless, pointless sophistry... which," She shrugged a bit, "-very good chance it might be."  
  
"Very good?" You asked, yourself sounding amused as she shrugged.  
  
"Give it a 85% chance."  
  
"What are you, a weatherman?"  
  
"Ugh, never. You couldn't pay me to put on a dress jacket with _shoulder pads."_ Her mirthful tone echoed a bit in the stairway as she smiled at you. "Still, even so, the fact remains that I~ wasn't~ lying~" She said those last three words in a sing song that made you roll your eyes a bit. "... Seriously." You looked back up at her, seeing a grin on her face as she leaned back. "I'd hate for this to be the last time we met, Spider. This was far and away more fun than listening in on a few stuffy old coots talking about their money bins or whatever they keep it all in or sitting in silence for hours on end. I had a _blast._ It'd wound me terribly if I actually scared you off like that. I'd definitely lo~ve to do this again sometime." She said with a put on, flirtatious tone before she winked at you.  
  
Even with that though, yeah, she wasn't kidding.

You put your hand on your hips, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow as you chuckled. "You know we could have done this without the stealing right? I'm not exactly the type of guy to say no if a pretty girl wants to have fun with me." Though to be perfectly frank, it was probably part of the thrill for her. Given her reaction to the entire chase it didn't exactly seem unlikely and, hey, she had to be a thief for a reason in the first place, right?  
  
"Oh? So you did have fun. That's good to hear." She practically purred out, giving you a wide grin as you blushed a bit under your mask, scratching the back of your neck as you did so. Partially because it was funny to be called out over that, which was a little embarrassing... and also because you were kind of relieved that she didn't latch onto you calling her pretty right to her unmasked face.  
  
"Yeah, actually... it's probably a bit weird to say I had a good time, right?" Heck you felt weird admitting it but... well, it was true. Compared to a lot of other stuff where you had a good time mostly just goofing on crooks or where you were mostly having a good time in spite of the situation this... well, this was just outright fun and enjoyable. Not even just the chase really.  
  
"Hmmm, it probably is... but trust me Spider, I'll be the last person to judge you for that. It'd make me a bit of a hypocrite, I think?" You shook your head at that, her laughter echoing in the stairwell as she fixed you with a smile and a wink. Well she was right, it would have... so hey, at least she was consistent? That thought made you chuckle a little as you relaxed.  
  
"Well in that case, I'll tell you what; when you get out of jail, we'll do lunch... your treat." You added with a snap of your fingers and a finger gun. As much as this was a joke you had to admit with the fact that it was even hard to say if Hobie was going to stay in jail for more than a few weeks... well, let's just say it was going to be hard to tell how long she'd stay in jail once she was sent there.  
  
"Oh? My treat. How very modern of you, Spider. Most boys wouldn't want to ask their date to go Dutch." You blushed a bit at that though, again, you kept it under control as you winked behind your mask, the eye of it following the gesture.  
  
"Like I said, guy on a budget so I don't exactly have much of a choice Miss... uh." Oh crap, you didn't know her name... well duh you didn't know her name, but like, her alias, her-  
  
"Black Cat, Spider-Man." The woman, Black Cat, said, her lips curling up into a cat-like grin as she said your own name with a soft purr. "It's Black Cat. I'll tell you what... give me a little time, maybe a week or so to freshen up, and then if you can catch me again I'll pay for lunch." She said with a wink as she giggled, causing you to just nod slowly as you shot her some finger guns again.  
  
"Right, uh, Black Cat." The way she grinned when you said her name, you had to admit, got your ears red. "I'll uh... see you later then. Probably not as soon as you say cause, you know, police and all that but uh... oh right." You brought her phone back out and quickly placed a call to the police, blushing the entire time as she did her best to stifle laughter at the display. She still giggled and snorted from pure amusement as she listened to you try to call this in and, sure enough, once you got into enough details to drop the hint.  
  
_"Wait, Spider-Man?"_ The operator said, sounding surprised. _"Well thank you for the details but... well, the police could use a little more information to help figure out where this... necklace, right? Where the necklace is. So if you could stay on the line-"_  
  
"You know, I'd love to but I've really got to get going cause I know you've probably already sent cops this way so... you know, just do your best to follow those instructions and I'm sure you'll find the necklace somewhere. Later!" You quickly ended the call before the operator could say anything else, heaving a sheepish sigh as you tossed the phone into the evidence bag along with other bits of Black Cat's gadgets.  
  
"Smooth, Spider."  
  
"Sorry, a kitty cat distracted me there for a while." You said with a slight blush brought on by the entire situation as Black Cat laughed.  
  
"Well, I'm flattered to hear that you couldn't take your mind off of me for a while there, Spider." She said as you just opened the door.  
  
"I'm going to go ahead and leave now." While you still could without giving her more opportunities to fluster you.  
  
"Take care, Spider!" You couldn't help but look back at her as she said that, a wide grin on her face as you just jumped up and started swinging away, already having swapped to a fresh Web Cartridge beforehand. You could feel your cheeks and ears burning the entire time and not even from the cold...  
  
What a day.


	55. What????

You were distracted as you walked into school that day, a bit dazed as you tried your best to keep your head screwed on tight. Yesterday had been a bit of an... event. Heck, you hadn't even remembered to properly call into Ned after everything had been said and done. You just wanted to get home, take a _cold_ shower and just rest up a bit after having really pushed your body in terms of exertion. It was a pretty full workout with a pretty... well, pretty girl with a pretty interesting knack for your kind of banter. As you approached your usual spot at breakfast with Ned, seeing your best friend already sitting there with a pile of folders at his side, you had to blink for a moment.  
  
...  
  
"Uh... did we have homework I forgot about?" Oh man, were you honestly so distracted that you'd forgotten some homework?  
  
"What?" Ned asked, confused, as he shook his head. "No no. Dude, this is... you know, the stuff I've been working on." You slapped your forehead; of course it was. Ned had been working on collating the data for New York's crime rates as part of a way to make up for the quiet on the NYPD lines thanks to the Polar Vortex.  
  
"Oh duh, of course... sorry man. You won't believe what happened yesterday." You laughed as you said it; honestly, part of you couldn't believe it either. It was the craziest time you'd had stopping crime that didn't involve a direct threat to your life and probably the second most fun you'd had since becoming Spider-Man.  
  
The first, of course, being Web Swinging. It would always be Web Swinging, you felt.  
  
"Yeah I had to admit I was a bit worried when you didn't call in. Something happen man?" You looked around but shrugged, knowing that this wouldn't be the time or place to fill Ned in about Black Cat.  
  
"Maybe later when we're not at school. Looks like you've brought work to school with you, though." You said with a chuckle as Ned gave you a big old grin.  
  
"Oh dude, totally! I figured it'd be safe enough to talk about because, you know, it's just normal, public stats. Dude, I've been working so hard on this and now-"  
  
 ** _"Attention students; would everyone please go outside? Teachers will guide you to where you are to stand."_**  
  
"... Man." Ned said with a frown, scooping up his folders into his hands as the intercom buzzed to life with the principal's voice calling over it. A drill, this early? Seemed pretty weird but, hey, you just shrugged your shoulders as you and Ned headed out to the front of the school. As you did so you saw teachers rushing about trying to get everyone in order... and, already, among the staff and the students a rumor was spreading like wildfire. It didn't take long before you and Ned heard about what was, apparently, the cause of this 'drill'.  
  
Some jerk had apparently called in a school district-wide bomb threat that the schools were going to have to play 'better safe than sorry' with. Which meant that some prankster was probably just trying to get you guys to stand out in the cold for an hour... great.

"Dude this sucks."  
  
Ned and you were on the same wavelength on that score. This entire situation was some bs. Granted, being called out of school thanks to a bomb threat was never exactly something that was cool or fun. It usually entailed you all heading outside for anywhere between several minutes to a little hour while you all waited for the school to be given the go ahead. Even if it seemed like it might take longer you guys were basically never actually sent home over this; so you all were just stuck twiddling your thumbs. Even kids who might not otherwise like school and might laugh about being given 'time off' from school for a bit quickly found themselves bored as they were forced to stand around and do nothing for so much time...  
  
That was under normal circumstances. Now literally everyone was freezing their butts off. Commercial coats and snow gear, no matter how thick, could only do so much when you guys were standing out in the literal Polar Vortex. They'd brought a bus back around to the front of the school and were working on a couple others but that was slow going which meant that most of you were pretty much forced to huddle up in order to try and hide from the wind.  
  
You swore to God, if they ever did find out who called this in you wouldn't judge Flash for ripping on them for weeks at a time. This was awful, everyone was suffering and everyone was miserable. What kind of inconsiderate jerk did something like this? As you all continued to shiver as you waited for the police to clear your school and other schools around the district, you and Ned huddled up amidst the crowd in order to try and keep warm... you noticed something weird happening toward the front. You blinked as you stretched your head up, seeing a police officer running through the crowd to go to a few of his superiors and the school staff, a walkie talkie in hand. The adults seemed to discuss something with whoever was on the other end of the walkie talkie, looks of confusion on their faces as they all glanced around at each other. Suddenly some flinched and went for one of the police vans, turning the car on and pulling out... well, something they were supposed to speak into, you think?  
  
 _"Everyone, please quiet down. Please, quiet down!"_ The police van's speakers blared, getting everyone to shut up as you couldn't help but move over a ways a bit, trying to get a better idea of just what was going on and what the police were trying to figure out. You got closer and closer and... slowly but surely, you started being able to hear what exactly was going on. It was still hard over murmurs but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the closer you got to the conversation the adults were having with whoever was on the other end, other kids were quieting down in order to hear what was going on.  
  
"There, we did what you asked... for whatever reason. It's-"  
  
 _"Yeah, thanks Captain Obvious, I can tell people can actually hear me now."_ You blinked as a loud voice called out from the other end of the walkie talkie's line, the voice somewhat muffled in the same way that yours was under your Spider-Man mask. _"Now then, with the damn kids shut up, we can get going. Nice to meet ya'll, by the way, I'm the guy who planted a bomb at your school! Hopefully you feel pretty damn lucky about that; it wasn't an easy choice."_ The voice on the other end of the line cackled a bit at that, the police officer on the scene grabbing the walkie and pulling it up.  
  
"How are you even on this line? Only-"  
  
 _"'Only police have access to blah blah blah'. Tell you what there chief, if I've got access to a walkie talkie that lets me call in on your little line here, I think you know that the only way I could've gotten it was through some not-so-nice methods and that being the case that I'm really not fucking around here."_ The voice said, the police and the administrators of your school grimacing as they shifted around a bit.  
  
"So, no prank huh? You actually set a bomb in a school full of children?"  
  
 _"Oh please, don't try to make me feel bad about the fact that they're children. They're fourteen, at the youngest, which means we're 'waaaaay' past the cute stage where you could really get me to give a shit."_ The officer growled a bit, looking at the others for backup but, seeing them usher him on, he turned.  
  
"Alright, you gotta want something right? You said you'd start negotiating if we got everyone to simmer down. So let's start; what do you want, exactly?"  
  
 _"Oooh. That's one of those big questions that you're just not really ever ready for, you know? I mean, I know what I want in general; like I want to be successful, I want to live a good long, glorious life... I'd like it if I didn't have cancer. That's probably a big one. Tell you what, let's make that bullet point one; a cure for cancer!"_ The line went silent for a moment. _"Probably better to kick that up to 'Super Cancer'. A cure for Super Cancer would be great."_  
  
"... We... we can't give you something that doesn't exist."  
  
 _"Pffft, you mean doesn't exist yet! Come on, isn't that a school for eggheads or something? I'm sure one of those fifteen years olds has an idea on how to cure cancer... or at least there's some little shit suffering from Dunning-Kruger Syndrome who thinks he does. Hell, honestly, I'll take either one, I'm not exactly picky. Even a placebo would be good at this point."_ You honestly couldn't believe it, your eyes rolling practically out of your skull as you listened in. Okay, at this point it was beyond clear that, whoever this was, they were jerking the police around. Thankfully, that's something the police seemed to catch onto.  
  
"Look, I don't know who you are or what your deal is or how you 'really' got on this line but I'm going to give you a warning; illegally operating a police line and, more to the point, calling in a false bomb threat is a very serious offense. You'd best stop your game now while we at least don't know who you are before you get into serious trouble."  
  
 _"Oh ho, what? A guy asks for a cure for his everything cancer from a bunch of fifteen year olds and suddenly his bomb threat isn't credible anymore, is that it? I'm telling you, you're being terribly closed-minded! I can sound like a complete jackass and be a totally viable threat at the same time! It's kind of a talent of mine, as people will tell you."  
_  
"Now you listen here you little shit, I'm not exactly sure what you think you're doing but you're messing with the NYPD, and you can rest assured-"  
  
 _"Oh what are you guys gonna do? **Not catch Spider-Man at me?"**_ Oh man you could see a vein throbbing in the police lieutenant's forehead at that one. _"If I can be really honest here man, you're being kind of a dick."_  
  
"I-I, WHAT-"  
  
 _"Yeah you heard me! Here I was wanting to engage in some funny banter while waiting for people to overhear all this and start spreading the word and you're not even going to play along? I was going to make increasingly unrealistic and ridiculous asks! Hell, do you know how long it took me to figure out a way to painstakingly and unfunnily crowbar Bea Arthur into my list of demands? I had to work hard to be that much of a hack fraud, dammit but no, no. You're not going to play along. Well fine by me; pretty sure I've actually got what I wanted out of this anyway. If they haven't overheard it by now they'll hear it from someone else."_  
  
"You listen to me-"  
  
 _"I don't have to listen to dick."_ You frowned at that, feeling irritated already by whoever this ass who got you all to stand out in the freezing cold for nearly an hour. " _I'm just gonna go ahead and pop the top off of this here bad boy and start waiting around."_  
  
"Don't get too comfortable; we'll track you down and we'll make sure you know the consequences for wasting the time of the Police Department."  
  
 _"Oh you really don't believe I've actually got a bomb! Unbelievable! Well here ya go, jackass! 3-2-1, boom!"_  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
No boom, of course. Some people overhearing the discussion had flinched at the countdown while others had just waited impassively. When there was no explosion to be had everybody just rolled their eyes as the police leaned in, ready to shout some threats into the walkie-talkie-  
  
 ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM~***  
  
You immediately flinched, ducking your head down at the loud sound of the explosion. Everyone else did at once as well; for a moment you were perplexed; a fake sound, maybe? Your Spider-Sense hadn't gone off, it had sounded so far away and, well, Midtown High wasn't exactly a fireball at this point. So you were half convinced that it was just something that played over the walkie talkie... were it not for the fact it had sounded so real...  
  
...  
  
Suddenly you got the answer to all of your questions when somebody in the crowd pointed out a fire in the distance, a column of smoke rising into the air as everyone just stared.  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
 _"Huh. That's weird..."_ The voice on the walkie talkie said as everyone just stared long and hard. _"This is Maspeth High School, right?"_  
  
"... N... No... this is... this is Midtown High."  
  
...  
  
 _"Aaaah, that explains why their mascot was an Argonaut and not... I dunno. Tiger, Ape... whatever the fuck it is in this one._ " You just stared back at the walkie talkie, eyes bugging out as the voice on the other end laughed. _"Haha, wooo! Good thing I played it safe and went with that district wide-call in! Otherwise, man, there would totally be some dead kids right about now. Wouldn't that have been a major tonal whiplash! I mean, fuck me, right?"_ The voice on the other end of the line laughed for a moment before said laughter almost immediately died down.  
  
...  
  
 _"So anyway, uh, you go ahead and deal with all these kids and their horrible mental trauma. Me? I think I'm going to go ahead and start waiting around for shit to happen. By the way, cops? You all really shouldn't try to find me; I promise I will cut you if you try. For real, and you know I'm serious this time. So, uh, you know... go Apes?"_ The line went dead almost immediately after that.  
  
Needless to say everyone was sent home almost immediately after that.  
  
Judging by the sounds of it though, you wouldn't exactly be staying at home for long... if you went back home at all.

You shivered a bit as you swung through the air, keeping your eyes peeled through your mask as you tried to figure out just where the Hell this guy was... if you could even tell. Even through your thermals you could tell your costume was still just a bit wet from yesterday's exertions. Just enough so that the bite of the winds was just that little bit more uncomfortable as you kept swinging.  
  
"No idea where I'm even going to start when it comes to searching for this guy, Ned." You remarked on your phone, held up to your ear as you scanned around Queens for any sign of this bomber. When you'd made the decision to head on out you'd almost immediately grabbed everything you had on you and booked it. Wherever this guy was he was out and about with a cop potentially on hand, who knew in what kind of shape, and you needed to get moving. The downside of this was, of course, not exactly having a perfect idea of where he was. You had a Guy In The Chair for that, thankfully, however as you were finding out...  
  
 _"Like I said dude that's around where the guy was supposed to be patrolling according to the channels. The cops are really active right now but not even they have a good clue where this guy could be beyond that."_ Great, so this guy goes out of his way to make a big show of blowing up a school but he doesn't bother to show himself and, to top it off, the police had no leads after the initial one.  
  
"Man, what are we gonna do Ned? I can do my best to try to find this guy but if this is all we have to go on then I'm going to be at this all day." You remarked, taking another one-handed swing with your Webbing as Ned you could hear Ned grunt.  
  
 _"I could start narrowing it down from where the police haven't found anything yet. Direct you to spots they haven't started searching? It doesn't exactly eliminate a lot of ground but, hey, it's a start right?"_  
  
"Yeah, it's a start." You agreed, heaving a sigh as you just shook your head. "Call me back when you've got something figured out Ned."  
  
 _"Will do."_ You ended the call and put the phone away, rubbing your brow before going back to Web Swinging. All the while a question just kept ringing in your head... where was this guy?  
  
 ***BANG*  
  
*ZZZZZZZZRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!***  
  
"Woah, what the-"  
  
As your body shifted instinctively to try and react to your Spider-Sense you were suddenly left feeling rather adrift in the air as something tore through the Webline you had been swinging around with. You grasped wildly at the air at the sudden slack as you went into free fall, giving a quick cry of panic at the sudden change. Your momentum continued to carry you, though now in a far less controlled manner, as you quickly reached a hand out. Before you could smack into the ground or even something else your fingertips quickly stuck themselves to the side of a nearby building, causing you to wince as you felt the pressure on your shoulder. You quickly pulled back and positioned yourself on the building, looking around for that sound. No doubt about it, that was a gunshot! But who... what, how-  
  
...  
  
Your eyes narrowed slightly as you noticed a shape moving off in the distance a couple blocks away on a rooftop, something shiny moving away from their person. You couldn't quite make them out from a distance in terms of details...  
  
But they were definitely [waving at you.](https://i.imgur.com/0q6mk0r.gif)  
  
As they meandered away from the edge of the roof you immediately went into high gear and fired off more Weblines. You quickly ascended back up and started moving, looking to get there as quickly as possible so as to avoid this guy just getting away, to not let him run... but, flummoxing you again, you couldn't help but feel surprised by the fact that no, this guy hadn't run away. He'd stayed there on the roof as you swung up to a nearby billboard and stuck to it, looking down at him.  
  
He was an extremely [strange looking guy](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/023/874/676/large/david-nakayama-deadpool-90s-front-back-final.jpg?1580630307)... which, you know, pot calling the kettle black but you stood by it. His entire body was covered head to toe in some leather outfit, rich and crinkly looking that had this peculiar shine to it. Maybe from being kept in such good condition or maybe from the melted snow running down it but it was clearly good stuff either way. The entire outfit had this red and black motif to it, with far more of the former than the later, as the black mostly served to break up the solid blocks of color that would've otherwise been. His mask was mouth-less, much like your own, and the eyes had a patch of black leather sewn around them, with only white lenses to meet your own gaze. It reminded you a lot of how you designed your own mask and, weirdly enough, he doubled up on the design with his belt buckle looking like his mask.  
  
...  
  
Kinda cool, you weren't gonna lie. Pouches lined his legs and his waist, including several large ones behind him. Stowed on his back were two large swords and, around various points of his body were a few knives holstered here or there. Settled by his side was what you had to assume the loud 'banging' noise was; a large sniper rifle. Which wasn't his only firearm either; two pistols sat on his hips and you had to imagine there were more... somethings in those pouches of his.  
  
However, all of this would've been fine on its own... if he wasn't sketching something just as you arrived.  
  
"Uh..." You muttered, arching a brow under your mask as he looked up at you.  
  
"Well it's about damn time! Yeesh, been waiting for a good minute for you to show up! You know, when you get an invitation to come hang out you should really be more prompt about answering it." Your jaw hung open at that; okay, not really what you were expecting at all.  
  
"Invi... You shot me!"  
  
"Good sir, I did no such thing... I shot _at you._ Trust me, there's a huuuuuuge legal distinction there kiddo." You watched him put the paper and pencil to the side as he stood up, shaking his head as he looked at you. "Fuck me though they were right. I'm dealing with a baby Spider!" The guy sulked after saying that, dropping his hands to his hips as you just continued to... God, how did you even feel like this? This was just so... you didn't even know! "Man... ah well, I'll still do this job even if I'm only at half mast." You shuddered at that, reflexively cringing at... wait.  
  
"Job?" You asked, watching and tensing up as the guy reached down to his sides and immediately pulled out his two pistols, spinning them around as he laughed.  
  
"Oh don't you worry your sweet little old head off about that, buckaroo! Name's Deadpool, thanks for asking by the way! I'm here to be your newly scheduled mercenary for hire! I'm told I'm one of the best!" The guy, Deadpool, said with a snort as he looked up at you. You narrowed your own gaze as you took him in; some kind of mercenary huh? It didn't exactly take a lot of brain cells to put two and two together; if this guy was on a job and a merc, then you were clearly the target...  
  
After all, he did shoot at you... which, come to think of it, probably should've been the dead giveaway.  
  
"Okay 'Deadpool'. I don't know who you are or what your beef is but I really don't have time for this! I'm looking for some idiot psycho who blew up-"  
  
"Oh that was me!"  
  
...  
  
You couldn't help but feel absolutely flummoxed.  
  
"I mean, Hell, how else was I going to get a teenage Superhero's attention? Blow up an Apple Store? Shit, depending on your disposition you might like that!"  
  
...  
  
Was... was this how criminals felt when you talked?  
  
...  
  
 _Nice._  
  
But also, way uncool to go through yourself! Plus you got your guy!  
  
"Oh buddy you just made my day a lot easier, then!" You said, standing up against the billboard as you cracked your neck. Deadpool, on the other hand, just cackled a bit as he pointed his guns at you.  
  
"Feeling's mutual, squirt!"  
  
With that you bent your knees, preparing to go off on him!

"Pffft... leave in a reference to connect to- who do I fuckin' look like? Kevin Feige? Suppose you want me to do some trailer shit like 'Deadpool will Return in Spider-Quest 3: Goddamn It Another One I'm Tired Of These Reboots'?" You watched in befuddlement as the mercenary, Deadpool, just seemed to talk to himself, the Merc's eyes seemingly darting out to look at... nothing as he spoke. "Still though... the rest of that advice 'is' pretty good... but I'm going to have to get the Webhead up there to come on down..." You narrowed your own eyes at him, clapping to get his attention as he looked back at you.  
  
"Hey dude, sorry to break it to you but if you want to join my rogue's gallery I'm afraid I've got some pretty strict requirements; you can either be crazy or you can be annoying. 'Fraid I don't accept both." You said with a shrug as the guy turned on you, his guns aimed right for you as you immediately tensed up again.  
  
"Aw come on, you can't put that kind of lame restriction on your Rogue's Gallery! Being annoying is the best part of being crazy!" Deadpool loudly screamed as he started blasting both pistols your way. You tried your best to snag them with your Webbing before he got started, however the man's agility had proven to be a bit too much for you before you start having to dodge around. You did end up dodging all six shots and once you were back on solid... wall, you guessed, you fired off another two Weblines. This time, surprising you, Deadpool avoided having them grabbed up by just dropping them, your Webbing soaring on by open air as they dropped to the ground.  
  
"Dammit you are a slippery little varmint. Still, that just means I gotta break out the RAID!" Your eyes boggled as two SMGs, or if you knew the term right 'Uzis', got pulled out of a pair of holsters behind Deadpool as he aimed them for you. "BANG!" He started as he pulled the trigger, a spray of bullets heading your way. "BANG BANG, BANGBANGBANG, BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG, BANG BANG BANGBANG BANG!" The battle cry echoed on the rooftop, along with the explosive shots of the gun, as you immediately started flipping about the wall, doing your best to outmaneuver the nearly two dozen shots that had been coming your way. You took deep breaths as you jerked your body around in rhythm with your Spider Sense, trying desperately to keep up in order to avoid being filled with more holes than a pair of crocs.  
  
You could literally feel a bullet just barely shave by your ass as you managed to flip back onto the wall, breathing deeply from the exertion.  
  
"Well holy shit, you might be a baby Spider but you certainly got the fancy footwork down! Most guys I shoot like that would've turned into blood fountains by now!" You kept breathing deeply as you narrowed your eyes at the guy. Okay so just hanging back and waiting to be filled with lead wasn't exactly an option... and if you couldn't land your Webbing on those guns then that was what was going to keep happening. He just had too much firepower on him... God knew you didn't want to test him and have him break out even more. So you decided to opt for a different avenue of attack; attack.  
  
You fired off a Webline and snagged a bit of the ground behind Deadpool, using it to zip your way over to him as you reared back a fist. Deadpool's eyes, well, eye slits in his mask went wide as he ducked under the punch, leaving you to leave some space between the two of you as he just turned to look at you, a generally amused look to the slits and a grin clearly under his mask.  
  
"Oh man, it finally worked! Jeez, you'd think you were married to that wall for how hard you were gripping onto it!" You couldn't help but glare at him more at that as he turned to face you and, again, to your surprise he dropped the Uzis. "Finally, we can have our big, exciting and, most importantly, **cinematic** fight!" With that the guy reached back for the two handles sticking out of their sheets and... well, honestly, you probably should've expected this. On some level you just guessed that you thought they were more for decoration. Sure enough though Deadpool had ended up pulling out two katanas from his back as he spun them around.  
  
"Swords? Really? What year is this?" Plus katanas? You liked anime, sure, but you'd never be caught dead just swinging around katanas out in the open...  
  
You swore. For real.  
  
"Hey man, don't know the slicy-slice until you've gotten a taste of the blade!" With that Deadpool stopped spinning his blades and, with a leap, swung your way.  
  
Your eyes went wide as you followed along with your Spider Sense, ducking out of the way of one particularly aggressive swing before leaping back and away from another. The guy's swords basically whistled through the air for how fast they were going and how hard he'd swung them. As you ducked back you shook your head as you took a quick breath and raised your dukes.  
  
"I'm gonna have to say thanks but no thanks. Believe it or not sewing this costume back up isn't as fun as it looks." You quipped back as you jumped in to start trying to punch the guy. He laughed out loud, ducking out of the way of one of your punches, much to your annoyance, before he brought his blade around to swat away at another one of them...  
  
With the sharp end.  
  
"AGH!" You jumped back and away, using a Webline in order to help get yourself some distance as you held into your arm. A cut had drawn blood, easily cutting its way through your fabric as you looked down at the open wound underneath. The line was incredibly thin and would be easy to sew, both for your costume and for your thermals, thankfully, but still the blood would take time to get out. Great, it was Prowler all over again... and this time you really didn't feel like testing just how many times this guy could bat your blows away with those blades. He was... well, scarily good at wielding them. You had a feeling he could keep up the defense longer than you could try to puncture it.  
  
"Aw, did somebody get a boo boo. Don't worry, you'll have way too many of them to really worry about just the one once I'm through with you." You watched as he juggled and spun his blades around, his legs leaning ever so slightly as he gave you a smirk. You ground your teeth together and clenched your fist as you moved to meet him, ready to take him on... when, all of a sudden, his posture shifted entirely, along with his style. Your eyes went wide as his aggressive lunging was replaced with this smooth, dance-like motion as he spun his blades in unison right at you. You yelled, for just a moment, as you ducked underneath the first swing before avoiding the second with a back flip. Even with Spider-Sense that motion of his had been enough to toss you off your game.  
  
Yeah, okay, you were starting to see why this guy was a professional merc. He wasn't joking about that, at the very least.  
  
Still, he wasn't _that good,_ you quickly realized. His attack had left him wide open... and you weren't about to let the opportunity slide.  
  
"Well, I've got to thank you, this was a wonderful audition you've put up..." You commented before charging, immediately reaching forward to grab at the handles of his swords. You had to fidget a bit, of course, but soon enough you had your hands on them and, with a powerful yank, you managed to force them out of his grip as you tossed them behind you. "However, I'm afraid no matter how I try to slice it you just don't make the cut!" You declared as you jumped forward into his now wide open guard. You immediately started layering blows against his chest, powerful punches as you sought to really do some damage. The struggle you'd just had with the guy hadn't been as easy as it'd been with other criminals. Even that big guy you'd stopped at your first crime scene hadn't felt quite like Deadpool had. So you knew that this guy was strong enough to take a little bit extra from your punches.  
  
You watched as he reared down, covering his abdomen for a moment before you jumped back and away from him, not wanting to test what else he'd throw at you if you stick around. You were tense, you were ready... you were hoping he'd just drop down and give up after all those hits you'd landed...  
  
Instead...  
  
["Aw fuck. I can't believe you've done this."](https://youtu.be/8lBO23Dh23I?t=4)  
  
You watch as the guy, no joke, just stood up straight, looking more annoyed than seriously injured as he dusted off his chest. You couldn't help but boggle at the sight of it, your eyes wide as he just glared at you.  
  
"Now how am I supposed to show you how cool I am without my swords? You know, I try to be a good guy and show you my moves but you just act like a big bully!"  
  
"Y-... I... You're trying to kill me!" You declared, utterly blown away, as Deadpool made a big gesture of pointing at you.  
  
"Just you wait! I'm gonna go get [Cool Cat](https://youtu.be/zvzyQhgVACA?t=54) and then he's gonna come here and he'll see just what kind of bully y-OINK!"  
  
You watched as, from his other hand, Deadpool threw something into the air between you two. You couldn't help but feel terrified when you realized it was a grenade.  
  
Before it went off, you idly wondered why your Spider-Sense wasn't going off... and then in the next moment all was loud ringing and white light as your heads reached up to your head to hold onto it, as if that would stop the pain from rocking your brain.

"WOW, I DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN OR LOOK AT YOU. YOU MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY DONE ME A FAVOR."  
  


"Aw, you had him say that to me? That's so hurtful! Why, I might actually shed a tear... now, tell me more about pulling his pants down?"  
  


You couldn't even hear yourself say that. You could feel the vibrations in your throat as you did your best to scream that out, working through the motions that had been drilled into you subconsciously since you first learned how to talk, but Holy Hell you actually couldn't hear yourself scream. You couldn't even really see anything except for the bar, muddled image of the last sight of that jackass who flash banged you! You weren't about to give him the satisfaction of admitting it as you stumbled around, doing your best to try and get your bearings while you recovered. Fuck, fuuuck! This was so bad! It hurt so much! Holy... AAAAAGH! Well, the good news was at least that he couldn't have possibly done much better than you in that regard. The bang went off in his face too, so you...  
  
You felt your pants get pulled down your legs, your thermals still on as they couldn't be pulled down off of you.  
  
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU, BUT I'M GOING TO GUESS YOU SAID SOMETHING STUPID." You screamed out as you did your best to catch your pants, only to feel them be fully dragged down to your ankles. Holy shit, this guy had actually pantsed you. What the fuck was this, Junior High!?  
  


"Well, it's a good guess at least! Anyway, time for some KUNG FU FIGHTING!"

 ***zzzzRIIIIIING!***  
  
The telltale sign of your Spider Sense went off and your body shook. With only that as your warning you felt so... disoriented. It was screaming at you to move a certain way but... which way? You'd only ever used it as a guide to help you move but you'd always used visual cues and your own hearing to help you get around a certain space. With an almost drunken stumble you ducked down, avoiding the blow even as your pants locked up your ankles. You ground your teeth as Spider Sense alerted you again as you quickly got up on your hands, spinning away on them as you fluidly moved to build up some space between the two of you.  
  


"Holy shit, that was sick!"  
  


As you got yourself back on your feet you could see the concrete roof just underneath you, the snow... wait. You could see! You rubbed at your eyes as you stood up, the ringing in your ears going away as slowly the noises of New York in the winter started to filter in again. As you pulled your hands away you could see Deadpool standing there in... a kung fu stance.  
  
Whatever.  
  
"Should have left when you had a chance pal." You remarked, pulling your pants up in order to restore some of your dignity. "Because... well, I've never been to prison, but I'm willing to bet those grade school pranks won't be doing you any favors." You saw Deadpool laugh out loud, snorting a bit as he shook his head.  
  
"Oh, is that what you think kiddo? Well, trust me, you'd be surprised! I've never met a group of guys who went more red in the face over a whoopee cushion!" Deadpool declared as he ducked to the side again before, once more, going into one of those little weird spins of his. You furrowed your brow, frustrated that you were caught out again but being willing to blame it on the flash bang, as you still managed to dodge out of the way of his attack.  
  
"Is that so? Well then, let me get to work on getting you there, then!" With that you unleashed a torrent of blows, taking full advantage of how open Deadpool had left himself. A punch here, a kick there, a swing right into the gut there. You were putting even more strength into it too as you assaulted him, just pouring punishment into his torso in an attempt to get him to go down. No way this guy was normal taking this much punishment, you decided after a certain point. Even as you yourself started to get winded after beating the crap out of him... he was still standing.  
  
Admittedly he was groaning a bit and seemed to be actually a bit worse for wear... but he seemed more annoyed than anything.  
  
"You know... it occurs to me that this ain't getting me anywhere! There's no way I can hit you with my awesome Kung Fu moves at this rate..." Deadpool's brow furrowed. " Hell, my Kung Fu moves aren't even all that cool! Those _bastards!"_ You blinked in confusion, brows raised at this sudden outburst as Deadpool waved his fist at... nothing? [The clouds](https://i.kym-cdn.com/news_feeds/icons/mobile/000/019/234/3ad.jpg), maybe? "I should've known! You bastards were stringing me along this entire time! Oh yeah, I should've known you'd be _biased!"_  
  
...  
  
"W-... H... Who are you even talking to? Don't tell me you've gone even more crazy?" You asked, befuddled, as Deadpool just glared at you.  
  
"Don't interrupt me kid, speaking's a free action... and I intend to use that to FOLLOW THROUGH ON MY THREAT!" With that Deadpool reached into one of his pouches, causing you to tense up in wild worry. Another flash bang? Maybe something even worse? You were tense, waiting for whatever it was going to be... only for him to pull out a Smartphone. "Give me a second, I have a ton of songs on my SoundCloud and I need to find the right one."  
  
...  
  
"SoundCloud? What are you, some kind of dinosaur?"  
  
"Shut it, you damn Zoomer! [Adulting's hard!"](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbIhhpEXsAEHbWU?format=jpg&name=medium)  
  
...  
  
"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING!?" You declared, frustrated beyond belief as, finally, Deadpool found what he was looking for!  
  
"Ah there we go, the sick-nasty beat that'll teach these damn kids a lesson!" Deadpool declares as he put his phone down on the ground to the side, coughing into his fist as a... fairly stock beat began to play. Deadpool jived with it for a moment, bumping his head along and giving a few beats underneath his own mask before, finally, he started to... to rap.  
  
What.  
  
 _"Well I wrote this song for the Christian youth  
I wanna teach kids the Christian truth  
If you wanna reach those kids on the street  
Then you gotta do a rap to a hip-hop beat  
  
I gave my sermon an urban kick  
My rhymes are fly, my beats are sick  
My crew is big and it keeps getting bigger..."_  
  
Your eyes went wide. Oh no way, this guy wasn't actually trying to psych you out by-  
  
Your thoughts came crashing to a halt as Deadpool took a deep breath and then screamed:  
  
 _"THAT'S CAUSE JESUS CHRIST IS MY_ "- ******!"

...

You stared at Deadpool, eyes wide as your virgin ears had to take in such incredibly foul and horrible language. Deadpool himself seemed more... confused than pleased.

"What the... ******... ******... ******!" Each time he said it your jaw dropped underneath your mask, the eyes of your mask stretching along with your face as he just kept screaming that word. "Are you fucking kidding me? You're bleeping me out?! That's such bullshit! You can't bleep out Deadpool! If I wanna say Mitochondria are the Powerhouse of the Cell... THAT'S NOT EVEN CENSORING IT YOU DUCK... OH FUCK YOU!"

"DUDE! WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU... DON'T USE THAT KIND OF LANGUAGE! WHEN YOU GO TO JAIL... actually." You snapped your fingers in realization. "Do use that kind of language in jail, see what happens."

"Oh are you fucking kidding me? I can't even say it but I still get to suffer the social consequences of saying it? That's not fun at all!" Deadpool seemed to try to move for his stuff but before he could you were quickly back on top of him, your arms pulled back. Deadpool seemed thoroughly surprised by this, the merc barely even able to respond before you threw out your next quip.

"By the way? You're even worse at rapping than you are at killing me and you've been pretty terrible at the whole killing me thing too!" Deadpool gasped as he jumped out of the way of one of your punches, your muscles tensing as you reared back your other fist.

"Dude! Come on, now that was just hurtful!" Before Deadpool could quip more you managed to slip inside his guard and, before he could move away again, you drove your fist as hard as you could into his stomach. You'd never gone full strength before; you knew you were strong and you knew you could seriously hurt people if you ever went all the way up to your cap. However after seeing all the bruising and punishment this guy had taken without even really so much as crying or stopping for more than a few seconds you'd figured something out; this guy could take everything you threw at him. Deadpool gasped for breath, all the air in him driven out by your gut punch, as he bent over and held onto his stomach gingerly. "Okay... not as hurtful as that, but still!"

He really didn't have time to quip much more than that. You kept driving punch after punch into his torso, slamming a fist into his chest or driving one into his side. Even if you could feel the bones underneath buckle, and as much as that sickened and worried you, it always seemed like they were back in place by the time you punched again. So you kept on delivering the punishment before, finally, firing off two blasts of your Webbing. One of them missed due to a misfire by the device, which was frustrating, but you did manage to finally pin his arms to the side with one of the nets.

"Agh.... I CAN BREAK THESE WEBS... DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" It turned out, no, he could in fact not break your Webbing. A fact that seemed to cause him even more frustration and grief than the body blows you'd landed on him.

"So what, is your superpower really to be a superhuman punching bag? Because I've got to say, I feel better already!" You threw another couple punches at him and, while he avoided one or two, you still drove them back in and kept re-breaking bones that seemed to knit themselves together the instant after.

"You know you - OOF - really need to learn how to communicate your frustrations without using your - AGH - STOP BREAKING MY RIBS!" You backed off again and fired two more nets of Webbing and while Deadpool managed to shimmy out of the path of one the other clasped around him and tightened him further in its embrace. Soon enough you were able to, slowly but surely, apply more and more Webbing to him until he could only fall over on the ground, his entire body settled into a cocoon of Webbing.

...

"Well. Shit." Deadpool said with a frown under his mask as you took a deep breath of relief, walking up to him as you did so. You put your hands behind your head, taking deep breaths as you sought to even yourself out. You were cold, tired and annoyed but, finally, you'd managed to pin this guy down.

"Well, if you're done wasting everyone's time..." You muttered as you started walking over to Deadpool, the mercenary chortling as he looked up at you.  
  
"Come on kid. You can't waste time you enjoyed spending! Come on, aren't kids your age supposed to be hip to that kind of thinkin'?" You groaned again as you knelt down, looking at him through the eye holes of his mask.  
  
"FIrst thing's first, let's see who's under the hood here."  
  
"I'm just gonna tell you there, Spooder, that's not a good idea." You shook your head and ignored his warning, pulling up on his mask and-  
  
"JESUS TAP-DANCING CHRIST!" You immediately pulled the mask back down, jumping away out of reflex as you felt a queasy churning in your stomach. You did your best to not throw up, of course, but Good God was that hard to do! The guy was as ugly as sin, and that was being nice! "God you look like an overcooked wad of shredded beef. Fuuuuck." You shook your head again, trying to get the memory out of it by force as Deadpool just laughed.  
  
"Told'ja!" Deadpool cackled as he shook from the mirth of it all. "Yeah, I'm not exactly a pretty sight. Trust me, you'll never forget what I look like there kiddo. Not that you'd find it easy to forget at this point, though." Ugh, he just wouldn't stop.  
  
"Yeah yeah, keep joking. You really do enjoy talking." You said with a frown under your mask as Deadpool just gave a quick 'ooooh'.  
  
"Boy you'd best be careful in that glass house of yours, champ. Slinging those kinds of stones'll get you into trouble." You groaned again but kept going forward as you started to collect this guy's weaponry and put it all into a Webbing Sack using your nets.  
  
"Just do me a favor and be useful for one minute at least and tell me who hired you. If you don't start talking sense then I'll stop going easy on you." You said in a threatening voice, hoping that this guy would buy into the fact that you hadn't gone all out and poured everything you had into making sure he'd be restrained.  
  
"Oh, tough guy! Well much as I appreciate a good threat, kiddo, you should really read the room. You saw my face and you saw what kind of punishment I can take; I think you and I both know that you don't have the stones for the kind of _fun_ that would get me to spill my guts... and I mean that in both the metaphorical and the very much literal sense." You Webbed up the guns laying around and his swords... before you started trying to puzzle how you'd get to his pouches and belt. It'd take some jostling around with the net Webbing covering them but, hey, you could work through it you thought.  
  
"Keep up that kind of badmouthing and I'll break your swords... or worse, I'll sell them to a weeaboo." They were pretty nice swords all told, well made and well crafted. Heck, a part of you would've wanted to hang them in your room... though that would be a _very difficult_ conversation with Aunt May. Plus handing out real, actual swords to random people just didn't seem like a smart idea.  
  
"Oh please, do it. I need a laugh and there's nothing that'd get me rolling like a couple neckbeards trying to show off their real life Nippon Steel, folded 10,000 times, before they carved out a chunk of their fat asses by accident." You shook your head, looking down at the guy as you prepared your sack full of his gear for its eventual hanging.  
  
"Come on, surely a motor mouth like you can't be that scared of whoever hired you." This was important. This guy was a mercenary, not some common crook or a lab accident you had to fight or some industrialist with a chip on their shoulder. He couldn't have come from nowhere; he had to be hired and hired to kill you. It was the surest sign you'd gotten yet that something was up, something more than the coincidences you'd been writing off so far. You couldn't let this opportunity pass you by while it was right in front of you, that would just be absurd...  
  
But if there was one thing Deadpool was, you realized, it was absurd.  
  
"Kid, even if the folks who hired me did have a way to meaningfully hurt me in this crazy little world that's been cooked up for us, I still wouldn't tell you. That's just poor story form, after all!" Ugh, more of that nonsense. "Besides, I have to keep up my reputation as the Merc who's _'the best I am at what I do, bub'."_ He... launched into some kind of impression you didn't get. "Even if everything on this shithole doesn't matter, hey, I gotta still earn money somehow, right? Can't do that if I get a rep for squealing!"  
  
... That was the first sensible thing he'd said all day.  
  
"Fine. Killing me for money though? Like, I'm a teenager. How much money could really make you sink so low?"  
  
"For my price? 2,500,000 Dollars upfront in unmarked bills."  
  
...  
  
......  
  
.........  
  
"What? Like I said kid I got a good rep, and people pay for a good merc."  
  
"You know what." You said, finally, getting over the surprise of that with a shake of your head. "I'd probably kill me for that much money too." You admitted, sheepishly. Well at least now you couldn't say your life wasn't worth anything. 2.5 million. _Damn._ "Still, seeing as how I'm not getting a cut." You fired off another Webline after reloading your Web Shooters, taking Deadpool and the sack filled with his gear and weapons down to ground level. People pointed up at you in surprise, having gathered at the sound of so many gunshots, as you quickly stuck Deadpool to one lamppost and then stuck his gear to another.  
  
"This was fun, Spider-Man! I'll see you next time I'm relevant to the story!" His voice died out as you swung away, shaking your head as you could feel a headache coming on...  
  
After today you just wanted to get home, get some ibuprofen and lay down. Man and the week was just getting started...


	56. Outtake 10: Cat's Cradle

"Smooth, Spider."  
  
She'd laughed with the rushed way he'd ended the call. No doubt announcing himself to the police had gotten them very interested in him keeping still and waiting for them. Still, nothing to be done about it, obviously; the Spider-Man hadn't let the police catch him at their best opportunity to do so, he wouldn't do so here. Still, the awkward rush he pushed himself into as he put her phone into that little 'evidence bag' of his couldn't go unremarked upon.  
  
"Sorry, a kitty cat distracted me there for a while." Felicia's lips curled up into a wry smile as he said this, Spider-Man turning to look at her awkwardly as the young cat burglar couldn't help but tease him for that.  
  
"Well, I'm flattered to hear that you couldn't take your mind off of me for a while there, Spider." At that he stopped for a moment before shaking his head, quickly moving to the door and opening it, much to Felicia's amusement.  
  
"I'm going to go ahead and leave now." You just grinned at having effectively won this little game by getting him to move along, embarrassed, as you offered him one last flirtatious wink.  
  
"Take care, Spider!" There was a pause there, he looked back at her for just a moment and then immediately fired off a line of Webbing and swung off into the day. Felicia waited for a while, keeping her ears peeled for the sound of his... whatever fired off that Webbing of his to quiet down as he swung away. Her wry smile turned into a grin as she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she could feel mirth bubble up in her chest. She could celebrate, of course, after she got out of this. Had to hand it to him, he'd been remarkably thorough. He'd taken all of the gadgets on her he could find, including her goggles and mask, and had stowed them away in a separate bag of Webbing. For most other thieves this would've been game-set-match, especially seeing as how there was no way she was strong enough to tear her way out from all of these layers of Webbing he'd put on her.  
  
Still, Felicia did plan for this. Heck, while the thrill of doing the work and being the sort of thief she was played a tremendous role in why she did what she did, on top of the fact that she was just good at it, she'd been keeping the Spider in mind for when he'd show up. He was an active Superhero who'd thwarted numerous crimes, after all. She had to give him the credit he was owed; she wasn't about to make her father's mistake of writing him off as some punk kid.  
  
That would be kind of idiotic given that he wasn't that much younger than her, it seemed like.  
  
So she'd had plans set up. Some of them were Spider-Man specific while others were just more general things you'd do. For example, never lay out all of your options in the open. That was just basic; if you didn't have something up your sleeve then you were just a bad thief. A second lesson she found just as important was this; replacements or backups could serve just as well as decoys if they were obvious. That glass cutter he'd found which, yes, was a remarkably efficient device for its purpose, must've been all he needed to figure he knew how she got into the building. With that tool safely ticked off an internal box he could feel secure in the fact that he took that option away from her...  
  
Now all she had to do was sigh and wince as she looked down to roughly where her hands were. To convince him she was surrendering she needed to be willing to really make herself vulnerable. She really wished her hands weren't so close together for this or stuck like they were but it was necessary to show that, yes, she wasn't going to try and trick him in the middle of talking. Now that the talking was over though... well, she braced herself.  
  
A soft sound of metal sliding out and cutting into flesh was muffled and Felicia bit her lip, the taste of her lipstick and blood hitting her taste buds as she jostled around. This sucked but, well, it was the situation she roped herself into. After a few moments the struggling in the area got much more energetic, the webbing jostling around much more as, finally, she heaved a sigh and just focused on the movement of her hands. After a minute ten metal spikes emerged from the cocoon of Webbing and, with a flex of her hands they tore away the surface Webbing. A set of built in glass gutters at the tips of her fingers, able to withdraw into her gloves at a moment's notice. The Prowler suit had given her the inspiration for it but, well, the Prowler costume had the sharp fingers out constantly.  
  
That could suit other animals well enough... but cats could be deceptive with their claws. Tucked away one moment and unleashed the next...  
  
Even she had to roll her eyes at how corny that was. Totally appropriate for the female thief and, yeah, fun, but still, _corny._ It felt like the sort of bad pun that would come out of a variety of Catwomans from across the decades. As she tore apart the cocoon with her claws she stepped out of it, stretching out and letting her bones pop. It was comfy in the Webbing, it had a very cushion-like quality, but man did staying in one place leave her stiff. She winced a bit at the blood that lightly dripped from her claws and that stained the Webbing she had cut through. That would have to be fixed up pronto. She quickly cut down and cut apart the evidence bag Spider-Man had left, retrieving her tools, her mask and her goggles. As she put them on she quickly reached for the laser, taking it and quickly getting to work.  
  
She might as well do the Spider a favor and burn down this Webbing too before the police could arrive. Two birds with one stone. Blood and Web burnt out and otherwise wiped away, Felicia took account of everything, found herself in the clear and quickly went for the exit. She opened the door and stepped out into the open air, the chill of winter hitting her again after all that time in the cocoon of Webbing. She took a deep breath of it, letting the chilled air sting her lungs for a bit. Still, now that she was free and in the clear, those serious thoughts that kept the mirth and the glee down in her were no longer there. She could feel the smile stretching across her lips, the giddiness bubbling in her chest as she bent for a moment and-  
  
"Yes!" She declared, jumping up in the air and pumping her fist before landing on the ground... and wincing, feeling just how sore her muscles were as she rubbed her leg. Still, despite how absolutely beyond sore she was the stupid smile wouldn't leave her face.  
  
That hadn't gone well.  
  
That had gone _amazingly well._  
  
Better than she had any right to ask for! She couldn't help but keep that smile on her face as she walked toward the edge of the building, a rhythm to her steps as she hummed to herself. The chase had been exhilarating, the game of cat and mouse, unseen by each other yet hunting around the room, thrilling. The banter had been everything she thought it'd be and more; the two of them playing off of each other and the situation, verbally sparring and joking and... God. It had been great! While succeeding at her father's failed heist had easily been the highlight of her career, this had been the most fun she'd had on any given night. There were other times that were close but, God.  
  
A wily thief chased by an actual superhero.  
  
And the best thing about it all.  
  
He'd admitted he'd had fun and meant it. The thought alone got her excited.  
  
She was reluctant to call anything perfect. In her opinion, everything in life could be better, could be more awesome. Could be more fun and enjoyable.  
  
This though, this had pretty much gone _perfectly_ for her first encounter with Spider-Man.  
  
Just her first though.  
  
She tried to jump again but, again, she found her body unwilling to cooperate from how sore she was. Still, that jest about giving her some time to freshen up wasn't just for show or to flirt for fun. She really did need time to rest up. This had pretty much pushed her to the limits of her abilities and more. She'd need to change up her strategies and consider a few new tools and tricks. The former she could definitely do for next time, the latter... well, she'd need more time for that. Still though, she couldn't wait on the latter; she'd promised lunch with the Spider next time he caught her.  
  
And if he had fun today then, boy, was she looking forward to delivering.  
  
She looked back in the direction of the apartment she'd robbed, a small smirk on her face... as she heaved a sigh, feeling her feet continue to ache. In the end, she laughed, the exhilaration of the encounter picking her up as she fired her grappling hook and let it do most of the work of carrying her.  
  
She could go back for it later. After she'd had a nice... _cat nap._


	57. Outtake 11: Vertical Monopoly

He kept a loose grip on the paper; a rushed out, local evening update from Queens. It was unusual but, given the events of the day, unusual was perhaps called for. Earlier in that day a school in Queens had been blown up in what everyone suspected to be either a major terror attack or a would be school shooter gone to some rather tremendous extremes. The entire neighborhood, the entire city, had been left thoroughly on edge. Was it any small wonder then that the news would report on something to break that tension, a scoop for what was on everyone's mind?  
  
The bomber, or 'alleged' bomber or 'one of the' bombers as various papers put it, had been caught and admitted to the crime, as well as to the violent assault of a police officer. The man was barely alive and recovering in the hospital... the other. Well, he'd been caught by Spider-Man. A picture of the scene was plastered on the front page, the suspect in question being dragged by police into a cop car. The man, the Merc with The Mouth himself, looked over to the camera in the picture and waved even as officers shoved him along.  
  
"I trust you've canceled the second half of our friend's payment." The Big Man stated calmly, coldly, as he lowered the paper, Hammerhead standing across from him in the room as he nodded.  
  
"Yeah boss, sent word to the boys to cancel the arrangement. Can't get back the down payment we put on that clown a'course, but-"  
  
"But such is the price of doing business with freelance mercenaries. Especially ones like Deadpool." The Big Man spoke calmly, bringing the paper back up as he read it. "Seems our suspicions can't be denied anymore; the kid's a freak alright."  
  
"Yeah. Not exactly a lot of people, even well armed, who can go toe-to-toe with the clown and survive." Hammerhead spoke, a slight grit of his teeth as he clenched his jaw, the man obviously frustrated by the entire thing. "Just what we need; a loose thread running around with those freaky powers."  
  
"So it's official then, it's not one of the kraut's?" The Big Man set the paper to the side, lacing his fingers together.  
  
"The Brotherhood ain't claiming credit for him at least... same time they ain't exactly bothered about him running around so wherever that other group'a freaks are, he ain't theirs either." Hammerhead took a seat at the desk across from the Big Man, the older man opening a compartment in the desk and pulling out an old bottle of wine and a couple glasses.  
  
"Good news I suppose. We don't have to send anyone to bust heads with folks who might not take kindly to it." Didn't matter how powerful those groups were. If there was one thing The Big Man made sure everyone knew it was that New York was _his turf._ The city belonged to him and the parts that didn't were subject to those he had deep in his pockets. Criminals could operate in it if they promised a cut and followed the rules and the freaks and their little turf war could go on so long as they didn't get in the way of his business. If they did... well, most of them were human enough that they had legs to break.  
  
He'd lived through too much of the bad times in the city, worked too hard to break the back of the rest of the organized crime that had opposed him and worked too hard to ensure he'd have a legacy to pass down for those freaks to come and fuck it up at the last minute, after all.  
  
"So, what's the plan then? Taskmaster might still be available. He's not quite as obviously freakish as the clown but-"  
  
"Hammerhead, do not let Mr. Wilson's demeanor distract you from what's happened today." Hammerhead clammed up as The Big Man uncorked the wine bottle, taking a small whiff of it as he nodded. "Good year." He remarked, a pleased tone to his voice as he began to pour. "Deadpool was one of two mercenaries at the top of our list for dealing with out of control freaks and weirdos because he's earned his reputation. If Frank Castle hadn't been driven back underground by the Spider-Man then Deadpool would've carved him up like a cake." Of that the Big Man had no doubt whatsoever. "The fact that he couldn't deal with this kid means big things."  
  
"Right, course. Still, Taskmaster-"  
  
"Might very well be up to it... but we thought the same of Deadpool. Furthermore, with Deadpool's failure, Taskmaster is very likely to jack up his price. After all, the more difficult a target..." Natural business for mercenaries. Especially ones of the caliber of Deadpool and Taskmaster.  
  
"Alright, true, but I don't exactly see many other options besides that, boss." The Big Man pushed one of the wine glasses Hammerhead's way, keeping the other with him as he swirled the wine around lazily with a rhythmic motion of his wrist.  
  
"Back when I was making my climb up the rungs in NYC, the common wisdom was that you hired out in order to fill your ranks. If you sent the people loyal to you and under you there was a chance that they wouldn't come back out. The morgue was always an option waiting. When it became clear to me that I could save more money by hiring people to work for me, by making my own reserves, I did so... and from there I handled it myself." The Big Man said calmly as he took a sip, Hammerhead nodding his head slowly. "If we rely on mercenaries to try to take out the Spider-Man, we'll be in a constant process of bailing them out, re-hiring them and hiring them for more and more. The prices are manageable now, as is the bad press... but people will start to pay more and more attention if mercenaries with traceable backgrounds keep popping up."  
  
"So, what are you suggestin', boss?" Hammerhead asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Get Hobbie out of jail immediately and have him start doing some less demanding work. Spider-Man's going to keep playing havoc with our businesses on that level; we can't afford to have him, or the common thug's worries, logjam that. Hobbie can, at least, consistently get away now that he's had some sense knocked into him." Hammerhead nodded at that, taking a sip of wine himself.  
  
"Seems like the same goes for little Felicia. Shame she seems so intent on not workin' with us. Not a lot of people can claim they actually escaped the Spider-Man." Hammerhead remarked as The Big Man nodded.  
  
"Sooner or later Miss Hardy will make a mistake. Sooner or later we'll be the ones to bail her out... whether she makes that mistake herself or... well, if we have to pull on her leash." The Big Man cracked his knuckles. "She'll learn that there's no workin' around the Big Man in the city for long." Hammerhead nodded in agreement as the crime boss looked at him. "Still if she can keep playing cat and mouse with our pest, then all the better."  
  
"So what, keep distractin' him with folks like Hobbie and Felicia?" Hammerhead asked as the older man just gave a short grin.  
  
"No. We have resources, Hammerhead. Some already under us, some close enough and others... well, we can turn them into more. My point is that we shouldn't keep looking outside of our operations for soldiers to fill the ranks. If we can't hire freaks who can take down Spider-Man...  
  
"Then we'll start making freaks. That way-" The Big Man raised his wine glass and swirled it around, "-if they fuck up... they have nowhere to go but to us."  
  
Hammerhead smiled at that, nodding in understanding as he and The Big Man clanked their glasses together.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


"... I can't believe it. We were _that close_ to a score, O'Hirn..."  
  
In a prison cell, heated to prevent the chill of the Polar Vortex from creeping in, sat two crooks. A run of bad luck had seen them confronted by the Spider-Man thrice; for Alex O'Hirn and Flint Marko, the past several months could, very easily, be said to have been pure Hell in terms of confronting Webhead.  
  
"How did he even see us in that storm anyhow? I could barely even see a foot in front of my own face..." Alex remarked bitterly, the large man's elbows on his knees as he and his partner in crime groused.  
  
"It was gonna be so perfect! Store had been closed out for days, no one was going through there and even if they did the blizzard should've covered us! We were gonna be rich, finally! Easiest job of our life..."  
  
"Then the bug came in and ruined everything!" Alex said his fists balled up as he slammed them into his thighs. "I hate that bug. Next time I see 'em I'll-"  
  
"Ah shut it O'Hirn, you ain't doing nothing to that little prick." Flint remarked, a scowl on his face as he leaned his head into his hand. "So long as he's got them powers of his and we don't, he can keep toying with us. Little shithead."  
  
"Yeah..." O'Hirn droned that out slowly, the man's limited imagination obviously running wild with possibilities. Why, if they had been the ones with powers, then they would've showed that creep. They would've pulverized him! If Alex could just get his hands on him, he'd smash him! Pop his head like a grape or somethin'! Yeah... but how could he do that if he couldn't even touch the creep? As the two groused and commiserated on their arrest at the hands of the Spider-Man the two failed to notice the officer walking up to their cell with the keys.  
  
"Alright O'Hirn, Marko. Looks like you two have some fans somewhere; you got bailed out." The door was opened and, honestly, for a moment neither of the two quite knew what to make of it but, with a shrug, the two quickly departed their cell and made their way out of the police station, retrieving their things as they did so.  
  
Outside they were met with a pretty nice looking car; not a limo by any means but, still, nicer than anything Flint or Alex had seen up close... that they weren't looking to steal, of course.  
  
It was the man who stood outside the car in particular who got their attention.  
  
"Boys, The Big Man's been hearing about all the hard work you've been doing on his behalf. He'd like to make you two a little offer..." Hammerhead said calmly, politely, as he opened the car door for the two to usher them inside...  
  
With some reluctance the pair entered, not knowing where this would lead them or the rest of their lives.  
  


**xXxXxXxXxXx**  


He'd been told ahead of time by his secretary that he had company. Major company at that. He'd told her to hold his calls for the next hour or so, for who knew how long this visit would really be. If it was for pleasure then it wouldn't be terribly long; probably an invitation to a fundraiser or a request to hold one jointly. It'd be odd for him to make the trip in person but, well, the man reasoned that he was becoming quite important to New York City as well these days...  
  
If it was business then it'd likely take a great deal more time.  
  
So as Norman Osborn exited the elevator that led into his office he slowly but surely strode through the open space, his back straight and his eyes straight ahead as he saw the congenial, friendly demeanor of the man sitting in one of his office's chairs.  
  
"Mr. Osborn. I've been hearing your company's been having a difficult couple weeks at the market." The talk started off congenial enough as Norman just nodded.  
  
"Indeed. The Vulture business, while a net positive for our image, ended up disrupting our operations and sewing some doubt about our security... concerns that the theft of our prototype stealth suit didn't make much easier." Norman spoke calmly, plainly, as he took a seat at the main chair of his desk, turning to face the man who sat so naturally in his office, as if it had actually belonged to him.  
  
In a certain sense, Norman supposed that wasn't wrong.  
  
"A pity." The man commented idly watching Norman closely as the red haired tycoon took a small breath to relieve some irritation.  
  
"Of course, such hits are... small when compared to the opportunity Oscorp can now enjoy. Glider Tech is sure to put us quite a ways ahead in the Aerospace business and investors can, and will, clearly see that potential. Even if it takes us a little time to scoop the necessary capital together given our... as you said, difficulties."  
  
"Oh sure, sure. Under normal circumstances that would take you a little time..." The man spoke, calmly, before he turned those eyes on him. Despite how outwardly friendly he was being, Norman Osborn was sharp enough to recognize one of his own. The cold, calculating steel behind those eyes couldn't stay hidden from him. "If you're interested in shortening that time, I have a business proposition for you, Osborn."  
  
The truth was, whatever Norman may have thought otherwise, there was no way to say no to this. No one said no to The Big Man...  
  
But Norman smiled nonetheless. Because while no one could say no to The Big Man no one paid out like him either.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this quest here's a link https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-web-of-the-spider-man-quest.695368/.


End file.
